Chelsea FC‘s winter transfer window signing Juan Cuadrado made his second start against Burnley on Sunday. The Colombian winger has been a serviceable player so far for the Blues but has yet to justify his price tag of around 25 million pounds. Some Chelsea fans may be getting impatient and wonder why Cuadrado was brought in to a squad that was looking worthy of the Premier League with the players already in place.
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Jose Mourinho has urged patience with Cuadrado much like he had in the past with Mohamed Salah. When Salah was seeing minimal game time in the second half of last season, Mourinho said that the Egyptian winger still needed to adapt to the Premier League. He warned Chelsea fans that he would be a player for the future because of his age and relative inexperience.
Well now Salah is on loan at Fiorentina and has expressed a desire to stay in Italy so his future at Stamford Bridge is in question. Salah has been tearing up the Serie A since his arrival there with two goals and an assist in just two starts. The level of competition is lower in Italy but perhaps he just needed regular chances to play.
Mourinho also tried to explain Andre Schurrle’s struggles earlier this season by saying that the German midfielder was still adapting to the English game. He told us all that Schurrle was still getting used to the physical aspect of the game but that was last season after the German’s hat trick against Fulham. This season it was because of an illness that Schurrle had not adapted yet to the game and he was shipped off to Wolfsburg to fund the move for Juan Cuadrado.
Andre Schurrle was a good if not spectacular player but Mourinho must see something extraordinary in Cuadrado if he was essentially swapped for Schurrle. The German did not score many goals for Chelsea but he did have a knack for scoring important ones. His finishing was also on point when he was on form and some of his goals were world class. He will undoubtedly be a big success at Woflsburg because he will be given the chance to achieve them.
It is clear that we have yet to see the best from his replacement Juan Cuadrado because as Mourinho says, “He is adapting. He needs to adapt in everything. The pace of the game, in Italy it’s completely different. The intensity is much higher [here], it is different to play at the intensity we play – especially for 90 minutes.”
Mourinho went on to discuss the winger’s time in Italy and said, “At Fiorentina he was playing as a wide player; here he has to go to areas where he’s not adapted to it. I truly believe we are not seeing the player we know we have because the kid needs to adapt.”
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There is indeed usually an adjustment period for players moving teams for a number of reasons. Obviously the style of play is different in Italy vs. England but there is also the issue of learning how to play with a whole new set of players. Cuadrado was used to his teammates in Fiorentina having spent several years there but must learn the habits and style of his Chelsea teammates. It is far too early to decide whether or not Juan Cuadrado will be worth his hefty price tag because he does indeed have to adapt to the league before any judgements can be made.
What can be questioned however is whether or not the move had to be made in January to disrupt the squad and bring in a new player to a team that is challenging for the title. Cuadrado may end up scoring some important goals for the Blues but he must adapt quickly so he can help Chelsea achieve its goal of more silverware.