BBC pundit Garth Crooks has questioned Chelsea’s decision to sign Marc Cucurella this summer.

The Blues shelled out £62m on the Spaniard, but he was taken off at half-time by manager Graham Potter in the 2-0 win against Aston Villa yesterday after struggling in the left-sided centre-back role. Crooks did not hold back in his criticism of the player in his ‘Team of the Week’ column:

“What Marc Cucurella is doing at the club never mind on the pitch at Villa Park I don’t quite understand. Graham Potter, having sold the player when manager at Brighton, has now inherited him at Chelsea but the Spaniard is not a top-four defender and it is showing.”

Potter explained after the game that Cucurella was replaced for tactical reasons, and that suggests he wasn’t best pleased with the defender’s performance either, but Crooks is probably being slightly harsh on the player.

The 24-year-old’s early performances in a Chelsea shirt have actually been pretty promising so it’s probably too early to write him off and suggest that he is out of his depth. He has shown during his time at Brighton that he is capable of playing as a centre-half in a back three but he will need to show more than he did at Villa Park if he wants to be a regular starter.