Issues On The Wing

If one player symbolizes this current Chelsea era, it is Mykhailo Mudryk. The winger arrived in London promising to fill Hazard’s boots.

Despite some good performances of late, his situation pushes many to consider what type of winger works in the Premier League.

Wingers played such a prominent role in the previous era of the Premier League that most teams dream of finding that perfect winger. After creating some great highlight reels, Mudryk should have been the next player to electrify on the wing.

While his struggles seem to be constantly highlighted, this speaks more to bad talent evaluation by the teams interested in him. With so little experience in top-level competitions, Mudryk was projected to be a long-term project, but that’s not what Chelsea needed. Unfortunately for the player, unless given a long leash to develop, his career in London will be defined by failure.

Perhaps the best example to illustrate the change of wingers in the Prem is Christian Pulisic. Despite a fine career at Chelsea, many saw him disappointing in London, as he never consistently found form there. However, a move to Milan revived his career, finding a league more welcoming to wingers. 

For all the lowlights created by Mudryk, it’s better to view his career as a shift in football. Wingers now assume different roles than those they used to have, fitting into a pattern of other positions seeing radical shifts.

When he first broke on the scene, Mudryk felt like he had stepped out of the 2010s.

Highlight reels of the youngster cooking anyone in his path filled fans with hope.

PHOTO: Jon Durr/Imagn Images

Anyone around for 2010s football on YouTube remembers the litany of player compilations that ranged from young Neymar to PSV Depay. This era allowed fans to dream about players in a totally alien way. Now, this feels part of the routine of football, but Mudryk’s rise almost solely based on these videos felt so nostalgic.

As the hype grew in January 2023, Mudryk became this mythical figure, with the only real tape being these reels. No one knew what to expect from him, but that only made the excitement grow. Chelsea won the chance to sign him, and the Boehly era seemed to have found its cornerstone.

Instead, the past year and a half saw the winger become a bit player at Chelsea. He occasionally plays well, but nothing justifies the hype he arrived in London with.

It feels tough to diagnose what went wrong for the Ukrainian truly. Certainly, the player arrived so raw that he needed the chance to develop. For a club so willing to force out young players on loan, it remains baffling that the club tried to pigeonhole Mudryk everywhere. 

Another area where the blame lies has to be on ownership and coaching. From the start, Mudryk needed to be the next Hazard for the club to justify its investment. Development became secondary, and he now finds himself on the outside looking in. 

Mudryk joined the wrong club at the wrong time for his development. He needed to develop in a better league, but his move stunted his potential.

Not the first Chelsea winger to fail, rather the most recent, Mudryk joins a list of players who failed to adjust their game to the Prem.

In fact, Chelsea’s previous attempt, Pulisic, provides hope for the Ukrainian. 

Pulisic joined Chelsea with plenty of experience at the highest level. He proved himself in Europe with Dortmund and fit in well with Chelsea’s vision at the time. Like Mudryk, he promised to be the torchbearer for the post-Hazard era.

Despite some memorable moments, it always felt that Pulisic never fit into the Prem. The league moved from more traditional creative outlets on the wing to center-attacking mids masquerading as such. Pulisic never truly became a threat on goal, so Chelsea’s patience ran out.

As he has shown this season, Serie A seems to be a winger’s dream. While still very much a defense-first league, wingers play a larger role than more traditional forwards.

Unlike Prem strikers, Serie A center forwards exist to finish off chances and only occasionally help in the build-up. This gives wingers free rein to impact the game everywhere else and create in the vacated space. Wingers like Kvaratskhelia and Leao show just how much wingers can matter to their teams compared to the Prem, where only Salah is that game-breaking force on the wing.

The careers of the likes of Grealish and Antony should serve as a lesson for aspiring wingers. While the Prem offers so much growth for strikers and defensive midfielders, wingers have been squeezed out. Pulisic’s move to foreign shores shows that the position only really died in the Prem.

Fortunately for Mudryk, there’s still so much of his career left to be played.

However, to revive his career, he needs to find a home elsewhere. 

In the past month, Chelsea has found some stability, but it has come at the price of Mudryk. The winger promised to lead Chelsea into a new era, but it came at the wrong time for him.

Now, as the position he plays is falling out of favor in the Prem, a move might be the only thing left for him.

PHOTO: Jon Durr/Imagn Images