Levi Colwill has opened up on the challenges he has faced since being deployed at left-back by Mauricio Pochettino away from his more natural position in the centre of defence. The Chelsea academy graduate enjoyed an excellent loan spell at Brighton last season before returning to west London and immediately becoming part of Pochettino's first team plans.
The England international has missed just one Premier League game this season with 12 of his 18 appearances coming at left-back. When Chelsea were struggling for wins, there was understandable disgruntlement surrounding the use of Colwill with his best attributes barely on shown when on the flanks.
Despite this, Pochettino has persisted with his Colwill plan with an October verdict likely still applying in the absence of Ben Chilwell. «I am so happy with Levi and the way he is playing. He is showing character and is providing the team with a very good balance,» he said when asked about Chilwell returning to the starting XI for a Carabao Cup clash against Brighton.
Colwill himself has now spoken about his role change, revealing the differences in each position along with why he's glad Pochettino's experiment has continued. «Where you receive the ball. A lot of the time you receive the ball right on the line and there’s only a few passes,» he admitted as quoted by Presenter Olivia Buzaglo. «At centre-half where I’ve usually got the ball, you’re in control of the situation.
»You can break the lines, you can play forward, you can start attacks but as a full-back that’s a lot harder because you’ve got the winger, you can go back to the centre-half or the midfielder, that’s it really. Mauricio knows I’m a centre-back but he knows it’s going to help me. When I go back there, I’ll
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