Our writer Simon Phillips has today written a really interesting piece on his Substack which condenses the feelings of a lot of Chelsea fans at the moment surrounding one player: Malo Gusto.
It was just 12 months ago, before Cole Palmer had really shown his true level, that Gusto was being called the best signing of the Boehly-Clearlake era. Bought for a bargain price, he slotted right into the team when Reece James got injured and held down that slot all season, playing a serious number of minutes and becoming a vital attacking cog in Mauricio Pochettino’s team.
But this season, Gusto’s form has gone off a cliff, and with James now back and playing, there’s the first serious calls for the Frenchman to be dropped.
What’s behind Gusto drop off?
So what’s happened? That’s the question on everyone’s lips, Phillips tried out a few solutions:
“Is it because he is being asked to play as an inverted full back and this has just become too much for a young player? Perhaps. He is still only 21-years-old, so he is still very much developing and learning.”
It’s probably a combination of everything – a bit of sophomore slump, a bit of difficulty adapting to a new position. Phillips has a solution too:
“I think that he perhaps just needs to keep the focus on becoming a consistently top right back rather than being asked to do two roles at once, it’s just a big ask and takes a lot of concentration and awareness.”
But that doesn’t look like the direction Maresca is going at all. In fact, from the moment the coach had James and Gusto available at the same time, he’s left Marc Cucurella out entirely and preferred to use one of his two right backs on the left.
