Former Chelsea star William Gallas has urged Graham Potter to solve an issue on the team's left-side involving Marc Cucurella and Ben Chilwell, adding that the manager may not know his best starting XI at this stage. It comes after the Blues have started to pick up some form, winning their last three games on the bounce after a barren spell.
A return to action for Chilwell has come amidst that, with the wing-back suffering injury issues for the early half of the season. There has also been an uptake in form for Cucurella, who had struggled to settle since joining from Brighton in the summer, with a mixture of illness and new surroundings playing their part.
After victory against Leicester on Saturday, manager Graham Potter paid tribute to the whole team for their performance, saying: "It's been a team performance over the week. It takes time to develop that, but the spirit is growing. The togetherness I really like, fighting to play, ready to play.
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"Marc Cucurella has been out of the squad for a while but has now put in two great performances. It epitomises what we need in the squad. I'm delighted for the players because it's been a tough period we've been through and now we can look forward to the weekend to try and finish off before the international break with three points."
While Potter will be hopeful his side can kick on and continue progressing in the coming weeks, former player Gallas believes that the left of the defence is an area to address. The ex-defender believes that one of Cucurella or Chilwell should be first choice, allowing for the manager to have a settled starting lineup.
He told GentingCasino: "Definitely the system for Chelsea is to play three at the back, with James and Chilwell as wing backs. But I am still waiting because I don’t think Potter knows what his best starting XI is at Chelsea. The biggest problem for me in this Chelsea side, is the left-hand side. They don’t have a player like Reece James on that side, because it is only between Chilwell or Marc Cucurella. We don’t know who will start in the XI and that is the problem.
"Chilwell and Cucurella are a little bit similar, but you need to have a number one. Maybe they don’t have enough quality to play every game as they don’t have the consistency for the manager to definitively say who is the number one. They are consistently making mistakes, which, even for the centre-back, makes it very difficult because you want to have a settled defence and to not keep changing things. On the right side, they don’t have that problem because James is there and settled."
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