Marc Cucurella interview: Chelsea have 'paid the price' for inexperience and why he wouldn’t have let Maresca go

Las Rozas, Spain — The sun is still high when Marc Cucurella finishes Spain’s final training session before their 3-0 stroll past Serbia, and the Chelsea left-back is in reflective mood. Over 40 minutes with The Athletic, the 27-year-old dissects a bruising club season, explains why the Club World Cup triumph feels a lifetime away, and delivers a blunt verdict on the decision to sack Enzo Maresca.

“We paid the price for inexperience,” Cucurella says of the 8-2 aggregate humiliation by Paris Saint-Germain that ended Chelsea’s Champions League dream. “For a lot of players it was their first knockout match at that level. At 3-2 in the first leg we still had a chance, but we lost our heads, attacked without structure, and PSG punished us.”

The defeat crystallised a wider frustration. Since Christmas, Chelsea have won only four of 12 matches, lost six, and slipped out of every cup competition. Cucurella, now in his fourth season at Stamford Bridge, believes the squad’s raw age profile is a factor. “The policy is to sign young talent, and I understand the project, but to fight for the Premier League or Champions League you need balance. Against PSG we missed players who had lived those nights before.”

That imbalance, he argues, was compounded by the abrupt departure of Maresca in January, six months after the Italian guided the club to a 3-0 victory over PSG in the Club World Cup final. “Enzo was the most important coach I’ve had at Chelsea,” Cucurella insists. “We worked 18 months together; we could play almost by heart. Winning a title creates a bond — you’d die for that manager. If you ask me, I would have waited until June. Changing mid-season, with no pre-season for new ideas, creates instability. That’s where our problems started.”

Caretaker Calum McFarlane briefly stepped in before Liam Rosenior arrived, but Cucurella says the schedule has left little room to embed fresh tactics. “We play every three days; we train for matches, not on the training ground. Liam’s ideas are good, but we don’t have the hours to practise them.”

Off the pitch, the squad has tried to project unity through a choreographed pre-match huddle. “It came from the backroom staff — a mental coach suggested ways to look like a strong team,” Cucurella explains. When referee Paul Tierney stood inside the circle before the Newcastle game, the defender shakes his head: “A lack of respect. He could have warned us; instead he wanted his moment.”

The Spanish camp offers respite. Cucurella, once an emergency call-up for Euro 2024, is now La Roja’s undisputed starting left-back ahead of a World Cup group that includes Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and debutants Cape Verde. “Coming here is a breath of fresh air,” he smiles. “We’ve earned the right to be called favourites.”

He tips England as a major threat under Thomas Tuchel — “he’ll give them tactical structure” — and names club-mate Cole Palmer among the trickiest attackers he has faced, alongside Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembele and Netherlands flyer Jeremie Frimpong.

Cucurella signed a new Chelsea deal through 2028 last summer, committing to a project he hopes will rediscover the rhythm of Maresca’s final months. “Arsenal stuck with Arteta for seven years; trust gives rewards. We need that patience.”

Whether Chelsea’s hierarchy share that view will determine if the Blues can close the gap on Europe’s elite — and if Cucurella’s sunny Spanish afternoons can spill into a brighter west-London future.