Mykhailo Mudryk made a lackluster home debut for Chelsea yesterday night, and as a result, Rio Ferdinand has discovered a significant worry with him.
Following his impressive performance as a second half substitute against Liverpool at Anfield a fortnight ago, the Ukraine international sparked understandable enthusiasm.
The £80 million winger who achieved the most speed by a Premier League player this season gave James Milner and Trent Alexander-Arnold a rough time.
Mudryk received his first start against Fulham, but the team’s defense, which has a well-deserved reputation for being among the most resolute in the league, quickly put an end to his threat.
The former Shakhtar Donetsk star’s performance lasted only 45 minutes until he was substituted by fellow January hire Noni Madueke.
Graham Potter, the manager of Chelsea, stated that Mudryk’s removal from the firing line was due to a “heavy cold,” but Ferdinand worries that Mudryk is the kind of player who would struggle against dense defenses.
It’s crazy, he said, because his 20-minute cameo versus Liverpool in his debut match was the best I’ve ever seen.
You need to maintain some equilibrium. At the moment, Fulham is a difficult club to play against because of how well they set up defensively when they lose possession of the ball.
According to the videos I’ve watched, his game is at its finest when he has room to run in the back. He faced a team yesterday that was experiencing a little bit of a low block.
They shortened the pitch, which made it more challenging for him; he will need to figure it out in due course.
Ferdinand did admit that he had some sympathy for a player who appeared to be interested in signing with Arsenal early in the transfer window and gave him the advice to avoid talk about his asking price.
You can’t call that overspending because others in the market there were willing to pay that amount, he remarked. He was desperately desired by them (Arsenal), but I believe there would have been other suitors.
“The problem for me was that I was a big-budget, record signing.” The price is not determined by the player, and while we may critique and criticize the player, they are not involved in the financial aspects of the game. It’s bad, but you have to argue that anything that costs £80 million or £100 million is excessive.
