What Chelsea’s two worst rated players this season have in common | OneFootball

With more than a week’s break between Premier League games and the season halfway done, this feels like a good chance to take a look at Chelsea’s numbers from the campaign and to pick out some individuals who are doing well – and some who are not doing so well.

By looking at WhoScored’s average ratings for the season so far and seeing who is at the bottom, we noticed something interesting. Of all the regulars (that is, players who have more than 10 starts in the league this season), the lowest rated is Marc Cucurella, on 6.44. The second lowest rated is Malo Gusto on 6.52.

Now there are a numbers of things that could go into this: is it just that the WhoScored rating system doesn’t favour full backs, for whatever reason? Or is it that Enzo Maresca’s system doesn’t set up his full backs to succeed?

It’s hard to say – what we can say for sure is that the eye test gives quite different results. Most fans would agree that Gusto has struggled this season, and is maybe our worst regular in terms of form (it’s only Reece James’ injury absences which are keeping Gusto in the team, frankly).

Meanwhile Cucurella, apparently our worst performer of the season, has actually been good by most accounts. In fact when he missed a game due to suspension recently, his absence was widely pointed at as a a major issue in the following game.

Marc Cucurella scores against Shamrock Rovers last night. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

Chelsea need more from first choice full back pair

What is for sure is that Chelsea need more attacking help from their full backs, and Cucurella and Gusto need to provide more threat in the final third, as well as getting more solid defensively. We hope that we can see some improvements to these ratings come May – if we want to finish in the top 4, we will probably need it.