Standing
on the brink of a new era at Chelsea, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is ready to play a
leading role after several false dawns and says young players at the club
can now see a pathway to the first team.
Todd Boehly, the American businessman, experienced an early taste of the
melodrama that awaits him during Saturday's 2-2 draw with Wolves.
But as the lead member of the consortium set to buy the club for £4.25bn
slunk out of Stamford Bridge's West Stand in shock at how two points had
been thrown away, he may well have taken solace in the performance of
Chelsea's marauding midfield powerhouse.
It would be an alarming collapse were Boehly's first season in charge not to
involve competing in the Champions League - and Wednesday's encounter at
Leeds, live on Sky Sports, offers another chance for Chelsea to take a
significant stride towards achieving this objective.
For Loftus-Cheek, the team's collective wobble has come at a time when he
has been shifting through the gears. Denied the opener against Wolves by a
marginal VAR call for offside, his overall display - his eighth start in the
last 11 games - added to his recent resurgence.
"I've been really happy with how I've played personally," Loftus-Cheek
exclusively tells Sky Sports. "I had a bit of a niggle with my Achilles
mid-season which stunted my progress a bit but I came back from that and I'm
enjoying my football again.
"I'm really happy to have played in some big games in the Champions League
and in the FA Cup. I want to keep this going and hopefully we'll get some
big results soon. I'm taking on completely different responsibilities now.
"Coming into Chelsea this season, I didn't know what to expect positionally.
I've always seen myself as a midfielder but someone who can do jobs in
different positions.
"It's something which I did coming through the ranks in the academy so I'm
not completely foreign to them - and my skillset allows me to carry out
those jobs so whenever I'm called upon to play a certain role, I'll do it to
the best of my ability.
"I've been playing deeper in midfield which is completely different from the
past six or seven years when I was more of an attacking player but I've
always had defensive qualities so for me to switch the mindset and have a
more defensive hat on is certainly different this season.
"I've enjoyed the challenge from right wing-back, to centre-back to the No 6
role in midfield. It is very different but I've enjoyed it."
Tuchel has an enviable record in reaching domestic and European finals since
his appointment and Chelsea will be formidable opponents in this weekend's
FA Cup final for Liverpool, who are in search of a historic Quadruple.
Loftus-Cheek was on the scoresheet last month in the 2-0 win over Crystal
Palace in the semi-finals and the club are preparing to reverse recent
history in their third successive final appearance having lost on the last
two occasions to Arsenal and Leicester.
While the road to Wembley is on the horizon, Loftus-Cheek acknowledges the
side must make the short trip across the capital with momentum behind them.
"We just couldn't get over the line against Wolves," he says, reflecting on
the disappointment of last Saturday. "Every team in the Premier League is a
tough game. It may not always be a passing team, but each team fights and
every team has belief so even when they're 2-0 down away from home, they
still fight until the very end.
"You'd love to have a game done in the 60th minute but you rarely get that
in this league! We went into the training ground the next day and I don't
think the players saw it as a punishment at all. We came in and recovered.
Sometimes it's better to do that when there's a short turnaround to another
game.
"We had a chat amongst ourselves just to make sure we're all on the same
page and the same wavelength going into the Leeds game. It's important for
us to stay together."
This is not the ideal time to be heading to Elland Road, four days before an
FA Cup final against a Liverpool side who will have had 24 hours extra rest
- a point that Tuchel refused to be drawn on.
Leeds have dropped into the Premier League relegation zone for the first
time since October courtesy of an inferior goal difference to Burnley. But
if Chelsea continue their recent poor league form with defeat in Yorkshire,
Arsenal could move to within a point of third place with victory at
Tottenham on Thursday.
Loftus-Cheek agrees with Tuchel's assertion that the next game is always the
most important, blocking out the Wembley showpiece until after the events in
Leeds have unfolded.
"We're used to these turnarounds now," he says. "We've played in all the
competitions this season towards the latter stages and at a top club, you
have to be able to switch your focus onto the closest game. For us, all of
our focus is on Leeds and getting the job done.
"Qualifying again for the Champions League is huge. This club deserves to be
in the competition every season and we want to reflect that again in the
final few games as for the most part we've been fantastic - especially in
Europe. We want to get this over the line."
Loftus-Cheek comes from a footballing family. Carl and Leon Cort are
half-brothers of the Chelsea midfielder - something he only found out in
later life.
Still only 26, he grew up idolising Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry - but
having scored his first goal for Chelsea since May 2019 in the win against
Palace, the midfielder is finally establishing himself as an important cog
in Tuchel's team.
When in full flow, there are very few opponents who can compete with his
power and athleticism. His close control and driving runs have been a
feature of his game ever since a young age, but it is now being seen more
consistently.
It has been a career punctuated by injuries, two Premier League loans and a
variety of positions, but Loftus-Cheek is experiencing a new lease of life
under Tuchel having found a new role under the German which indicates he may
yet have a bright future at Chelsea.
Speaking ahead of the Leeds game, Tuchel revealed the club's ongoing
takeover has acted as a "distraction" - not an excuse, but a reason for a
poor run of results.
The side still need four more points to be assured of Champions League
football next season - something which looked to have been cemented prior to
the March international break.
Since then, the Blues have taken just eight points from their last possible
21, and Loftus-Cheek has called on his team-mates to show a strong response
at the start of an important week.
"These are the kind of things that as an elite athlete you have to try to
block out," he admits when asked about the sanctions and the sale of the
club.
"These are the challenges that you have to deal with, the stuff that happens
on the outside. These things are out of our control and as players, you have
to try your best to deal with it.
"In this particular situation, there's been things going on that have meant
that we as a team have needed to stick together and focus on what we need to
do in the Premier League and in the FA Cup.
"At the time [the UK government imposed sanctions on Chelsea], we got
together and spoke about the need to stay focused. It's not easy, but we
have to try not to worry about what's happening on the outside and let the
club sort that out. All we can do is the best we can on the pitch and I feel
we have done this at times.
"We're going through a rough patch at the moment, but I think given the
circumstances we've done really well to play through it."
Tuchel has never doubted the Loftus-Cheek's natural footballing ability,
giving a prescient message to the player on the eve of the FA Cup semi-final
with Crystal Palace in which his opening strike set Chelsea on their way to
victory.
The Chelsea boss said on the eve of the game: "[His career] has been so
promising, but it has always been like, will he have his breakthrough? Now,
will he have his breakthrough?
"He is at a certain age now, and he's never had his breakthrough, everybody
is still waiting, still waiting for the next step and the next step.
"So for him, it's crucial, crucial, crucial to focus on the very day he is
in. It can be a huge distraction to think a week ahead, two weeks ahead, or
a month ahead about what can be. There could have been so much more, and it
does not make sense to worry because he is where he is.
"We speak a lot about this. He is gifted to be here, and it is a huge, huge
opportunity. He has everything that it takes - he wouldn't play, or we
wouldn't count on him otherwise - but he has heard this for many years,
maybe too much.
"He heard this throughout the academy levels. Through the loans, everybody
was telling him how good the potential is and how big a future there can be.
But the future is only there if you live up to it in the present.
"He needs to trust himself. With him, it's not overconfidence with him, it's
the opposite. He needs to get confidence in his body physically and his
ability to do this [type of performance] not once or twice, but three, four,
ten, twenty times."
Loftus-Cheek has all the tools - "it's in him", insists Tuchel - to become
one of the Premier League's most complete midfielders. Chelsea
self-destructed against Wolves, but is it an issue of self-confidence that
has held the player back?
"He's right," Loftus-Cheek says when Tuchel's words are relayed to him. "As
a player, it's consistency that gives you the confidence. It's not something
I've always had. I've always had confidence in my ability and I know about
my potential.
"I know how good I can be, but you need that consistency. You can't just
have immense confidence without playing regularly. It just doesn't go hand
in hand. When you start getting that consistency of playing, you start to
feel good in your body and then the confidence comes through that.
"I've always kept a vision. I still believe in what I want to achieve in
football and my confidence is building now. I want to keep that momentum
going.
"If you're coming through from the Under 18s or Under 23s, just training
with the first team can help so much. You can soak in so much information,
but it does reach a point where you've played with the first team for a bit
and you feel you can handle that level then for sure there's no substitute
for playing regularly - whether that's in the Championship or a different
country.
"You just need to get that stimulus of playing every week, and that's the
foundation of your footballing knowledge. It helps you to better understand
your body. I didn't necessarily have that consistency growing up so it was
very difficult for me to have that base of fitness and confidence in myself
but everyone has a different journey."
Ensuring the next Ruben Loftus-Cheek emerges from Chelsea's much-coveted
academy is on the agenda for the club's new owner. The Under-23s narrowly
avoided relegation from Premier League 2 at the weekend after victory over
Tottenham ended a season of struggle for last term's runners-up. The club
can only hope it is a blip. Age-group football has a tendency to be
cyclical.
Lifting the Under-16 Premier League Nationals Cup points towards a brighter
future, but the re-emergence of Loftus-Cheek is a timely reminder for Boehly
not to neglect the stars of tomorrow.
"Chelsea have always brought through talent and made talent coming through
the ranks," says Loftus-Cheek. "For me, maybe I didn't really have anyone to
look up to. Other than John Terry, there weren't players coming through from
the academy to the first team regularly.
"I didn't have the idol to look up to and see where I could go but now you
see the players who have reached the first team and hopefully the boys can
see there is a pathway and see it can be done in different ways. You might
not just go straight through, you might have to go on loan, but the pathway
is there to end up in the Chelsea first team.
"Hopefully we can inspire those boys in the Under-23s and below that it can
be done."
Tapping into Cobham's elite production line which continues to develop
players ready for top-flight football should be at the very centre of this
brave new dawn.
Loftus-Cheek made his senior England debut in November 2017, collecting the
man-of-the-match award in a 0-0 draw against Germany at Wembley and
receiving widespread acclaim.
It was the first of 10 caps yet becoming an emblem of Gareth Southgate's
team was derailed by setback after setback, forcing him to withdraw from
each England squad during the 2018/19 campaign before he suffered a ruptured
Achilles in May 2019 to rule him out for over a year.
Having been part of Southgate's England squad for the 2018 World Cup, the
prospect of representing his country in Qatar may not currently be at the
forefront of his thoughts, but it remains a clear target between now and the
end of the year.
"It's always a dream for me to play for England at a World Cup so it was an
incredible experience to be part of the squad in 2018 off the back of my
first full Premier League season at Crystal Palace. I was feeling good but
I've not been in the fold now for a while. I still want to play for England
and I still believe my qualities will allow me to.
"I'll keep pushing but the focus right now is on getting a top-four finish
and winning the FA Cup with Chelsea."
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is re-imposing himself at just the right time.
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