Chelsea manager, Maurizio Sarri has revealed where Ruben Loftus-Cheek needs improvement, despite scoring a hat-trick in his side’s Europa League 3-1 win over BATE Borisov on Thursday night.
Loftus-Cheek scored the first goal, tucking away from 12 yards after Davide Zappacosta pulled back an inviting ball.
He added another six minutes later from a corner, flicking on Willian’s corner to bag an unexpected brace.
The 22-year-old bagged a memorable hat-trick in the game with a late strike.
Sarri, who was impressed by Loftus-Cheek’s performances, said the midfielder still needs to improve ‘defensively’.
Speaking after Chelsea’s win over BATE, Sarri was quoted by 101greatgoals as saying: “Loftus-Cheek is a very good player, of course, but I have a little problem. I have to put 11 players in the starting XI, but I have 28 players! This little problem, I don’t know how to solve it. Ask to play 16, 17?
“At the moment we have four midfielders for two positions.
“Three of them with the same characteristics. Only Kante is a defensive midfielder. It’s very difficult for me to put in the starting XI two [such] offensive midfielders at the same time.
“I hope to be able to do it in the future, but I need the cooperation of the players. I need an improvement in the defensive phase… In the future I may be able to put [Ross] Barkley and Loftus in the same starting XI.
“In the offensive phase wonderful. I told him at the beginning of the season I thought he was really a very good player. Now I think the same, but now he’s now more suitable to my football.
“He’s improving. He needs to improve in the defensive phase, but it’s not only Loftus.”
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