Now, I know what you are thinking. How can a player have an effect on a team when he has only played ten minutes off the bench, but it was not on the pitch in which Cuadrado has had an effect, but merely his presence. The Colombian was at Stamford Bridge watching from the stands when the blue’s played Manchester City, the transfer was clear for everyone to see, despite not being officially announced at the time.
Before he had even kicked a ball for Chelsea, Cuadrado added competition for places in our attacking midfield roles. Prior to the signing, Willian’s position in the side was a big talking point between fans and pundits alike. The Brazilian is known for his high work rate and defensive capabilities, rather than his attributes in the final third.
Prior to the game against Aston Villa, Willian had only managed to collect one assist all season. Some may think the lighting quick winger may make up for that with goals, wrong. Willian has only managed to conjure up just a single goal this season, at home to Aston Villa back in September.
Despite the drastically low figures, Willian has retained his spot in the first team. Despite at the start of the season, Andre Schurrle started the first game and scored against Burnley. However, as the season has started to unfold Schurrle fell out of Jose Mourinho’s plans and has recently moved on to Wolfsburg.
As well as the German, Mohamed Salah also fell down the pecking order for the Blue’s. The Egyptian never looked like his time at Chelsea was going to kick on. Salah did not feature heavily under Mourinho, making only a handful of appearances, mainly in cup competitions. Salah was involved in the deal that saw Cuadrado join Chelsea, the Egyptian winger goes in the other direction and joins Fiorentina on loan until the end of the season.
With ‘the special one’ not having complete confidence in his rotation options, it left the Brazilian almost guaranteed a spot in Chelsea’s starting line-up. The lack of competition for places has shown over the season for Chelsea. At times, some players have been under scrutiny for not performing at their best. A recent example of this would be, Gary Cahill. Who at times has made numerous mistakes, to then be dropped for young prospect Kurt Zouma. The Frenchman went on to feature against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup Semi Final and the Premier League crunch match between Chelsea and Manchester City.
It became clear to Chelsea fans and players that Cuadrado would be joining cub on the weekend of the Manchester City game. It was clear that signing would add strength in depth to our squad. You only have to look at our bench against the Champions, four out of seven substitutions were youth team players.
I was hoping to see a reaction from Willian, many were tipping Cuadrado to come straight into the side to replace Willian. So for the Brazilian, he was playing for his place in the side. It defiantly seemed to show as he has impressed over the last two games. His impressive work rate and strength led to Loic Remy’s goal against Manchester City, he also set up Eden Hazard to score against Aston Villa over the weekend.
Willian look like he is continuing to improve all the time in the final third and is finally adding consistency to his game. It is clear to see that he has noticed the need to improve due to the arrival of Juan Cuadrado. Personally I am hoping to see Juan Cuadrado settle quickly at Stamford Bridge and make an instant impact as much as every other Chelsea fan. On the other hand, I have always been a big fan of Willian. A lot of his work goes unnoticed in this Chelsea side so it is great to see him finally receive praise. I hope the signing of Cuadrado can allow the Brazilian to take his game to the next level, something I believe he is more than capable of.
The strength in depth is going to be very important going forward as we approach an important stage of the season, as we are still competing in three competitions. Mourinho has shown he is willing to rotate his side, with the likes of Zouma and Loftus Cheek featuring over recent weeks. This is something that I’m sure Willian is aware of, however he has shown over the recent weeks he is more than capable of retaining his place in the side.
