Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri has admitted that there is a ‘tactical difficulty’ in midfield when it comes to fitting Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the side.
Loftus-Cheek produced his best performance in a Chelsea shirt last night when he scored his first career hat-trick in the Europa League fixture against BATE Borisov.
Chelsea won the match 3-1 to go 6 points above all their opponents in the group.
Loftus-Cheek gave a remarkable performance and this may create a dilemma for Maurizio Sarri when it comes to squad selection.
Sarri has said that it’s very difficult to fit Loftus-Cheek into the squad because of the presence of other midfielders with similar characteristics.
The Italian said, “We have four midfielders and three of them have the same characteristics. They are offensive midfielders, only one has other characteristics – [N’Golo] Kante is a defensive midfielder. So it is very difficult to put in the starting XI two midfielders with the same characteristics.
We have a tactical problem with the midfielders. At the beginning of the season he [Loftus-Cheek] was a very good player and now he is a good player that is more suited to my style of football.”
Chelsea have a star-studded midfield that has the likes of N’Golo Kante, Jorginho, Ross Barkley and Mateo Kovacic. Making it to the starting XI with the presence of such quality midfielders is a pretty daunting task for the young Loftus-Cheek.
This season, he has played only 33 minutes in the Premier League and hasn’t been in Chelsea’s squad for a league game for almost two months.
However, there is a chance that Loftus-Cheek should at least be in Chelsea’s squad for Sunday’s Premier League match against Burnley.
