Chelsea FC: What Now For Juan Cuadrado?
Chelsea FC have officially signed Barcelona winger Pedro this week and have added some much needed pop to their attacking midfield. The same sort of pop that Juan Cuadrado was supposed to bring to Stamford Bridge when he was signed from Fiorentina for £25m last January.
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It is fair to say that things have not gone according to plan for the Colombian winger at Chelsea and he may be on his way out soon enough. The Blues currently have five players at the wing positions, Eden Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Victor Moses, and Juan Cuadrado.
Throw in Loic Remy and Diego Costa who have spent time on the wings and it gives Jose Mourinho an embarrassment of riches at the position. Willian has not quite lived up to expectations as an attacking threat and Pedro looks the likeliest to take over his position.
As far as the rotation goes, Pedro should be the starter with Willian either moving inside as a number 10 or being a late sub when the Blues need to protect a lead. For lower level cup matches or lesser Premier League teams, Victor Moses could be brought in as he has the experience necessary to succeed in domestic competitions (if he recovers from his ‘injury’). That of course leaves the pacey Colombian out in the cold but he may yet find refuge back in Italy.
Juventus is in need of a trequartista, a midfielder that operates between the midfield and the forwards, and not a winger according to club director Giuseppe Marotta. Still, he told Football Italia that he is not completely ruling out the Colombian. He said, “Juan Cuadrado? Maybe he’ll be on the market. We’re looking for someone with different characteristics, but we have 10 days to fill the gap in midfield, so we’ll see”.
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So there you have it, Cuadrado is likely the odd man out in the Chelsea rotation but he may also be frozen out of a return to Juventus. A player of his quality, at least in Serie A, deserves another chance to impress at that level and he may still get his chance at Chelsea.
Mourinho knows what he has in Moses, a consistent player who works hard and is experienced at the Premier League level. He is not however the gamebreaker that many believe Juan Cuadrado can be. Cuadrado was one of Colombia’s best players in the World Cup and at the Copa America despite their disappointing early exit.
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It may be too late for him to make an impression at Chelsea but it seems awfully early to make that judgment. He has only been at the club for eight months and has not been given the chance to fully impress. However when playing for Chelsea, there is not much room for experimentation and Mourinho must put out his best players as often as he can.
If he feels one of them is not up to snuff then he will be shipped out. So the bottom line is, if Jose Mourinho thinks that Juan Cuadrado can make a difference in a Chelsea shirt then he will still be on the team come September 1st. If not, then we should expect him to be sold or loaned out before the end of the week.
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