Cucurella on Chelsea squad rotation, top-four aims, Champions League dreams

Today at 01:20 AM

Cultivating team-spirit mass

Enzo Maresca's strict rotation policy between midweek/B and weekend/A matches has been a defining feature of our season, and so far, it's produced some pretty good results. While we're out of the League Cup, we are top of the table in the UEFA Conference League and right in the thick of the top-four fight in the Premier League.

Despite that, there may be a bit of growing discontent among a few of those restricted mostly to B-lineup duty — at least in some media narratives. With results largely positive, any such grumbling has been relegated firmly to the background; though should results change, they would surely get louder as well.

But then Marc Cucurella would step in, put his arm around their shoulders, and be like "come on, bro; there's no 'I' in team".

"Sometimes you can start on the pitch and sometimes you need to start on the bench, but we are a team, we know what our objectives are and we need to keep going and pushing because if we push we have the talent.

"The manager always decides who is in the team for the best way to plan the game, it doesn't matter who plays. I know it's difficult, I stayed two games on the bench before Arsenal, but this is part of the game. We know we have a lot of games, all the players believe we are important.

"Maybe now I play, and then we have some weeks I don't play, but we are a team. We know what we need to do and our responsibility and we want to stay in the best place, finish in the top four and make sure next season we play in the Champions League."

There is no trophy for finishing in the top-four, but it's a step-by-step process.

"We are ready to compete for the top four. In my opinion that is the target this season, but we know this league is tough. We came from a difficult year and now we need to trust the process. We know everything we want to do.

"For sure we are here to win titles, but I think right now we are a bit far from the top teams. They have worked together with the same manager and ideas for a long time. We started a few months ago this season.

"We want to compete with all of them for sure, but it's difficult, you can't change all that overnight. But we are in a good way, we need to be proud of ourselves and keep going and not relax, because we have the talent but we need the consistency to stay in these places."

-Marc Cucurella; source: Chelsea FC

Well, if Champions League qualification were a paella, let's hope we end up with at least "something similar" to it, right boys?