Mykhailo Mudryk has become more “mature,” claimed his coach Mauricio Pochettino in his press conference today.
The winger has made grindingly slow progress in his year and a bit at Chelsea, but has scored and assisted a couple since the turn of the year, and has indeed had flashes we hadn’t seen in the preceding months.
“I noticed that he is more mature. I have noticed that he is a good example of a player who needs time to improve to be more mature and realise where he is.”
Certainly nothing matures a player like playing for their country, and making crucial interventions there. That’s just what Mudryk did with Ukraine this week, and he comes back to his home stadium on a high. It will be a big call over whether to start him or Raheem Sterling, who is fresh after a week of training with no games and will be desperate to win the Stamford Bridge fans back after a tough outing against Leicester.
With Carney Chukwuemeka out, one of the two will start on the left wing, and it could be crucial for deciding Pochettino’s team for the games to come. Burnley are a prime team for a quick winger to feast against.
Maturity may be part of the issue, but football IQ and an ability to read the game is also part of it. Mudryk has shown his quite some distance behind even his most youthful peers in that regard, so expecting him to turn up and “tear open” anyone is a roll of the dice at best. It’s best for Mudryk and the fans if we temper our expectations because he still has an awful lot to learn.