It is a bright afternoon at Las Rozas, the Spanish FA’s base northwest of Madrid, as Spain prepare for a friendly with Serbia. The mood is relaxed — some players soak up the sun, others work through shooting drills — a reflection of Luis de la Fuente’s emphasis on a strong dressing-room spirit. Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella has become an important part of that camaraderie.
Speaking to The Athletic before Spain’s 3-0 win in Villarreal, Cucurella described the national set-up as a reset after a testing spell at club level. Chelsea have managed just four wins in their last 12 matches and suffered six defeats, including a run of four straight losses and an 8-2 aggregate exit to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. That collapse, he admits, left a mark.
“We lacked experience,” Cucurella said of the tie with PSG. For many in the squad it was their first time in a fixture of that magnitude, and costly mistakes followed. He recalled the first leg, when Chelsea were 3-2 down with five minutes to go — a situation that, with more composure, might have been handled differently. Instead, errors and a lack of structure allowed PSG to take control. “You can always make a mistake, but we should have handled it better,” he said.
Now in his fourth season at Stamford Bridge after arriving from Brighton following the 2022 takeover, Cucurella feels able to judge the BlueCo project and the club’s current malaise. He accepts the strategy of recruiting young talent and building for the future, but warns that depending solely on youth makes immediate success harder. “We have a good core of players. The foundations are there. But to fight for major trophies, you need more. Signing young players only might complicate achieving those goals,” he said, adding that youngsters will gain experience over time but balance is required.
Managerial churn has made matters worse. Enzo Maresca, who guided Chelsea to the Club World Cup final victory in July, was out of a job within six months and replaced by Liam Rosenior in January. Cucurella defended Maresca’s impact, arguing the squad were more settled under the Italian because they had worked with him for 18 months and understood his systems. “In our last months with Maresca, we played almost by heart. If we changed the system, we knew what we had to do,” he noted. That continuity, he believes, mattered.
Asked whether Maresca should have been dismissed, Cucurella was candid: he would not have made that call and felt the club should have waited until the end of the season. Rapid turnover — caretakers, then a new manager with different ideas and limited training time — has fuelled instability. Rosenior, he said, is a good person who manages the group well, but a packed schedule with fixtures every few days leaves little opportunity on the training ground to embed new concepts.
To foster unity, Chelsea have leaned on rituals such as a centre-circle pre-match huddle, a players’ idea supported by staff as a show of togetherness and mental preparation. Cucurella explained the practice grew from guidance provided by a coach who helps the squad’s psychological readiness. The gesture caused debate when referee Paul Tierney stepped into the group before a match against Newcastle — an act Cucurella called “a lack of respect” and suggested the official “wanted to have his moment,” though he declined to expand further.
Cucurella’s standing at Chelsea has altered significantly since his arrival: once seen as something of a misfit, he is now regarded as part of the club’s long-term plans, having signed an extension through 2028 last summer. That trajectory has been mirrored with Spain. Initially drafted into the 2024 European Championship because of injuries to other left-backs, he became a starter and played a role in Spain’s title run. He enters the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico as Spain’s first-choice left-back.
On Spain’s chances at the World Cup, he struck a measured tone tempered by belief. “Yes, I think so,” he said when asked whether Spain can be considered favourites. “We have earned the right to have people believe in us.” De la Fuente’s message, he added, is to stick to the team’s strengths and keep working on the fundamentals that brought European success.
Cucurella singled out England as a leading rival and paid tribute to Thomas Tuchel — Cucurella’s first manager at Chelsea — for imposing tactical structure on talented sides. He also named a handful of attackers he finds difficult to defend: Chelsea team-mate Cole Palmer, Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembélé and the fleet Jeremie Frimpong.
Back at Stamford Bridge, questions persist around form and certain players, Enzo Fernandez among them, and the club’s inconsistent results have increased scrutiny. Cucurella, however, prefers to focus on the lessons learned from high-profile defeats. He stresses the necessity of experience in decisive moments and more time to build coherent processes. “We are still a bit away from the top level,” he said, urging a balance between youth and seasoned heads and the stability that comes from time and trust in a long-term project.