Mykhailo Mudryk has endured a difficult start to life with Chelsea. The winger arrived to much fanfare in January as the Blues beat Arsenal to his signature and presented him on the pitch at Stamford Bridge at half time of the match against Crystal Palace following a dramatic weekend of developments.
In his first appearance against Liverpool, Mudryk looked the real deal and set to take the Premier League by storm as he terrorised James Milner on the left flank but he was unable to sustain that impact. The 22-year-old required time to acclimitise having moved to a new country and been thrust into the middle of a season when he had not played competitive football for a number of months.
The former Shahktar Donetsk star managed two assists in his opening months with the club, one of which was fortuitous given the heavy deflection Conor Gallagher's shot undertook to head into the net. Mudryk managed 17 appearances for the Blues before the end of the season but struggled to show more than flashes of his abilities as Chelsea underwent a change in managers and struggled to earn three points
After his arrival Frank Lampard acknowledged the difficulty and pressure players who arrived at the club in January had to deal with due to Chelsea's difficulties.
"Some of the younger players that have come into the club have maybe not had the opportunity to settle, to feel comfortable within the team, to understand the full-backs are going to overlap them, or the midfield players are going to support them. That is a process, and that needs work. It’s probably work I haven’t been able to do in this role as interim. It feels less in practice about coaching to that degree."
After a short break taking in the likes of the French Open, Mudryk returned to a familiar environment in the Ukraine national side. He has played twice and provided three assists against Germany and North Macedonia thus far in June, and impressively so.
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With his side looking to fight back from being 2-0 down, Mudryk showed his impressive individual dribbling ability and speed on the left side of North Macedonia box, leaving three opponents in his wake. A well-placed cut-back found Yukhym Konoplya to finish well and bring the scores level.
Mudryk then showed that he can provide a quality delivery too as he took the ball in a deeper position and cut onto his right foot to expertly deliver to Viktor Tsygankov and earn an impressive comeback victory. The first time Ukraine had come back from two goals down in 23 years.
Ukraine next face Malta in their bid to qualify for Euro 2024 but Mudryk's international exploits will not end there. The youngster has been called up for the European under-21 Championship which begin at the end of the month, with the hope being the January signing can continue to build momentum ahead of his first pre-season with Mauricio Pochettino.
After difficulty in building his base fitness in the middle of a season, it will be crucial that Mudryk can hit the ground running with the fitness demands of Chelsea's new boss. A successful summer could give Mudryk the momentum that has been impossible to earn at Chelsea so far.
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