Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta has already been impressed by new signing Mykhaylo Mudryk after the Ukrainian made his Blues debut from the bench.
Mudryk joined Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk after a transfer battle with Arsenal, in a deal which could eventually cost the west London side more than £85m. He wasn’t deemed ready to start in Saturday’s draw at Liverpool, but his introduction from the bench during the second half lit up an otherwise quiet game.
The winger’s new team-mates have only had a small amount of interaction with him since the move. The skipper is among those to have already liked what he’s seen, though, amid suggestions there is a lot more to come from Chelsea’s marquee January signing.
“I’ve seen a very focused lad with great determination, great ambition,” Azpilicueta, who also came off the bench against Liverpool, said of Mudryk. “It was his first game since November so, for him, it was like pre-season, he played 35 minutes at Anfield so it’s not the easiest debut and I think he did brilliantly.
“He has a great connection with the fans as well. He’s a player who can have that mix between playing good football with his feet and also running into space. You could see his speed.”
Describing his new team-mate as “very confident,” Azpilicueta also suggested Mudryk would not let the price tag hang heavy on him. “The price tag, I know from the outside it’s there but we players don’t make the prices, it’s a market and when you are in the market, you have competition to get players so I don’t think it has to lie on his shoulders,” the Spanish international said.
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Chelsea thought they had taken an early lead at Anfield as Kai Havertz found the back of the net, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. It was a game of few clear-cut chances after that early flashpoint, though, and visiting boss Graham Potter admitted he turned to his new signing earlier than planned.
“Yes, ideally we wanted to give him around 30 minutes, but we thought it was the right time,” Potter said. “He’s a fit boy and we thought it was the right time to bring him on. It was a good start to his career with us.
“He’s not played football for a while, he’s been on a mid-season break, we had to manage his minutes and he’s still in that phase, but you could see his qualities,” the former Brighton boss added. While Mudryk’s last action for Shakhtar came before the World Cup, he barely missed a game in the Ukrainian top flight before the break and started all six of his former club’s Champions League group games.
