Thomas Tuchel's passionate Ruben Loftus-Cheek rant should send the Chelsea academy an alarming wake-up call. The Blues boss insisted that the Cobham graduate must begin to translate his innate gift into consistent performances, should he look to finally cement a role in the side.
The German boss has never doubted Loftus-Cheek's natural footballing ability, but it seems that his true 'breakthrough' remains in question. The 26-year-old midfielder has often shown flashes of brilliance in a Chelsea shirt but he's never quite reached boiling point and Tuchel is looking to change that.
"We knew the player all the time," the Blues boss said during his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea's FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace. "It was so promising, but it was always like, will he have his breakthrough? Now, will he have his breakthrough? He is at a certain age now, and he's never had his breakthrough, everybody is still waiting, still waiting for the next step and the next step."
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"We speak a lot about this. He is gifted to be here, and it is a huge, huge opportunity," the Chelsea boss added. "He has everything that it takes – he wouldn't play, or we wouldn't count on him otherwise – but he has heard this for many years, maybe too much. He heard this throughout the academy levels.
"Through the loans, everybody was telling him how good the potential is and how big a future there can be. But the future is only there if you live up to it in the present. He needs to trust himself. With him, it's not overconfidence with him, it's the opposite. He needs to get confidence in his body physically and his ability to do this [type of performance] not once or twice, but three, four, ten, twenty times. The next step is to do it for the third time in a row because he was excellent against Southampton [and Real Madrid].
"So it's little steps, and while it may even sound like it is too little given the potential and what's all in there, and even given the performances he can produce, but it's actually not. It's the only way to grow in confidence and become the player, finally, that he can be. But it's in him."
Though, while Tuchel's comments handed Loftus-Cheek to a new challenge, there's also an underlying lesson that the Chelsea youngsters, who are earning their stripes at Cobham, must learn amid the makings of a potential problem. Coincidental or not, the German's rant follows the twilight hours of a disappointing season for the Blues development squad. Andy Myers' side are currently fighting for survival in Premier League 2, despite having won the competition in 2020 and finished second in 2021.
Not only do the west London side sit second bottom in the league, Chelsea also dived out of the FA Youth Cup in the semi-final to Nottingham Forest. The Blues have suffered a subdued season despite being regarded as one of the world's leading pools of talent.
For the moment, the season can be considered an anomaly. But, in light of Tuchel's comments which essentially outline the ramifications of too much praise too early, the under-23s' blip raises suspicion as to whether this is a problem Chelsea need to solve.
