In Chelsea’s 2-0 loss to Aston Villa, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink said that Mykhaylo Mudryk ought to have played the ball to Kai Havertz instead of attempting to score.
In a one-on-one situation with Villans’ goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, Mudryk had the chance to equalise the score, but he made a feeble effort that allowed Martinez to easily obtain the ball.
The £87 million acquisition made no difference in attack and was eventually replaced by Noni Madueke after 57 minutes.
Ollie Watkins and John McGinn scored in Aston Villa’s 2-0 win to a revitalised Villa on Saturday, dropping us to 11th position. At Stamford Bridge, the players and Graham Potter were jeered by their own fans as the referee blew the final whistle. After a respectable run of three victories and a tie, it was a disappointing result for Potter’s side.
The English manager was sacked shortly after the game. Hasselbaink believes Mudryk’s missed opportunity reveals his inexperience in one-on-one scoring situations, (h/t Mirror), as he stated to Sky Sports:
“He needs to square it to Havertz. If he squares it, it is 100 percent a goal. Chelsea have created here again; you can see he is not used to getting these kinds of chances. He needs to take an extra touch and then take his time because he had so much time.”
The 22-year-old certainly had a golden opportunity to open his account for Chelsea in an impressive way. If he had scored, we might have even staged a comeback, but it’s reasonable; he is developing and is well aware of what he ought to have done instead.
However, passing to Havertz would have been a risky one given he was tracked back by two Villans defenders, but anything might have transpired if he squared it to the German player. If he did not make that pass in a proper manner, then he surely would have been criticised for not going for goal himself.
Perhaps Potter or some other veteran players can advise him and show him the proper technique for scoring in a one-on-one matchup. We don’t really have a proper No. 9 who is actively playing for us week in, week out but perhaps we can get our money’s worth from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and loaned-out Romelu Lukaku in the training ground and ask them to share a tip or two with Mudryk.
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