{"id":1235965,"date":"2021-12-02T17:19:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T17:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1235965"},"modified":"2021-12-02T17:19:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T17:19:50","slug":"ruben-loftus-cheek-joe-cole-chelsea-renewed-form","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/ruben-loftus-cheek-joe-cole-chelsea-renewed-form\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;He\u2019s been the pick of the bunch for Chelsea&#8221; \u2014 Joe Cole lauds Ruben Loftus-Cheek\u2019s renewed form"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Former Chelsea winger Joe Cole has lavished praise on Ruben Loftus-Cheek after fighting his way into Thomas Tuchel&#8217;s first-team plans.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old academy graduate has been getting considerable playing time for the European champions this season, starting the last two Premier League matches, while also enjoying a 53-minute run-out in the 4-0 win over Juventus the game prior, after replacing an injured N&#8217;Golo Kante.<\/p>\n<p>The England international was expected to consolidate a starting berth for years to come in Chelsea&#8217;s midfield following a breakthrough season on loan at Crystal Palace, but a serious <span>achilles injury suffered in May 2019 kept him out of action for over a year, and he subsequently fell down the pecking order.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>A loan move to Fulham followed last season, and despite playing regularly at Craven Cottage, he failed to make a significant impression as the Cottagers went down. As such, he\u00a0was not expected to nudge his way to the front of the queue under Tuchel this season, particularly after the Blues brought Saul Niguez to the club.<\/p>\n<p>But, it has been the academy graduate who has been making all the noise in Tuchel&#8217;s midfield this season, and not the club&#8217;s marquee summer signing. He has featured 14 times, including four appearances in the Champions League, and looks an authoritative presence in Tuchel&#8217;s set-up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He\u2019s been outstanding,&#8221; Joe Cole said on Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of people raised eyebrows when he stayed there because it didn\u2019t quite work for Ruben when he was at Fulham last year.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What is a Wide Centre-Back? Best players and tactics explained using Football Manager | FM22\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ys_YX5c54KU?start=11&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He looked disinterested and looked like he was carrying injury but he\u2019s been outstanding.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He\u2019s actually been the pick of the bunch for Chelsea. He looks fit, strong, lean.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That\u2019s the demands he (Tuchel) sets. He\u2019s gone clean slate and (said) this is what\u2019s expected, this is the level.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You\u2019re either on the train with us or you jump off and Ruben has jumped on the train and he\u2019s driving the train at the moment.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Chelsea winger Joe Cole has lavished praise on Ruben Loftus-Cheek after fighting his way into Thomas Tuchel&#8217;s first-team plans. The 25-year-old academy graduate has been getting considerable playing time for the European champions this season, starting the last two Premier League matches, while also enjoying a 53-minute run-out in the 4-0 win over Juventus&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1235966,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Joe Cole says academy gem has been Chelsea's \"pick of the bunch\" (and it's not Mount or James)","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Former Chelsea winger Joe Cole has lavished praise on Ruben Loftus-Cheek after fighting his way into Thomas Tuchel's first-team plans.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1235965","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Joe Cole says academy gem has been Chelsea&#039;s &quot;pick of the bunch&quot; 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