Maresca unsure if Mudryk can cut it at Chelsea

Tom Weber

Updated: 23 Oct 2024 19:19 BST
3 min read

Enzo Maresca has admitted that Mykhailo Mudryk's omission against Liverpool was a 'technical decision' and urged him to step up his game.

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The Ukraine winger's hopes of a fresh start under new Chelsea boss Maresca have quickly been dashed. Like Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino before him, the Italian has failed to unlock Mudryk.

The winger's chances have gradually been diminishing under Maresca and he was completely omitted at the weekend in the crunch clash with Liverpool at Anfield. Mudryk did not even make the bench against the Reds and some took this to mean that his Chelsea career is all but over.

The 23-year-old still has backers like Olympique Marseille boss Roberto de Zerbi and Shakhtar Donetsk director Sergiy Palkin - who has compared him to a Ferrari the Blues don't know how to drive - but Maresca evidently is not one of them.

Mudryk has been relegated to a rotational player who gets wheeled out for games Chelsea are expected to win comfortably and his coach has now addressed the elephant in the room.

Maresca on Mudryk

Speaking ahead of Chelsea's Conference League clash with Panathinaikos, Maresca confirmed that Mudryk's Liverpool omission was not for fitness reasons and admitted that the rest of Chelsea's attackers are, on current form, quite simply better than him.

"That was a technical decision," Maresca said of the weekend's snub before stating that he could feature against the Greek side: "Yes, he is here and he is available to play."

Asked when Mudryk will finally live up to his potential, Maresca responded in a somewhat pessimistic fashion. "When? I don't know," he admitted. "We try to work with Misha every day and hopefully he can get better and better day by day with us.

"It's more or less like Joao [Felix]; he is doing well. The thing is in the moment there are more players doing well. When they get the chance, they need to take it."