A big personality gone.
Chelsea are missing Antonio Rudiger’s personality in the dressing room since the German moved to Real Madrid.
That is according to a new report in The Athletic, which takes a look at what has gone wrong for Chelsea so far this season.
Chelsea find themselves sitting in 10th place in the Premier League, a goal down to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and out of both domestic cups.
It has been a fairly woeful start for Graham Potter, despite the club spending more than the rest of the Premier League combined in January.
Rudiger is one of a few senior players who has left the club in the past few months, with sources close to the club insisting the German defender is missed.
Rudiger missed by Chelsea
The report reads: “Rudiger and (Andreas) Christensen’s departures, for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, meant the defence required immediate investment. The loss of Rudiger’s strong personality has been keenly felt in some quarters and it is thought he would not have allowed standards to deteriorate as badly as they have.”
While Chelsea are struggling under Potter, Rudiger is doing quite well at Real Madrid, though they do find themselves eight points off top in the league.
They do however look like they are through to the quarter-final in the Champions League, as they’re 5-2 up on Liverpool going into a home second-leg.
One source close to a “senior player” at Chelsea told The Athletic that he feels the number of different languages in the dressing room could be a potential issue.
He said: “From what I hear or gather, I don’t get the impression Potter is saying that much to the players. He doesn’t strike me as a personable character that says a lot.”
It doesn’t get much easier for Potter and Chelsea either though, with an away trip to fierce rivals Spurs on Sunday at the relatively strange time at 1.30pm.
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