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Thomas Tuchel says a wing-back role is ‘perfect’ for Chelsea’s forgotten star Kenedy and the Brazilian will ‘fight for his place’ in the side.
First-choice left wing-back Ben Chilwell is set to miss the remainder of the season due to a knee ligament injury, while on the other flank, Reece James remains out with a hamstring issue.
Tuchel has experimented with his line-ups on several occasions, using Marcos Alonso and Malang Sarr at left-back, while the club failed in their attempts to recall Emerson Palmieri from his loan spell at Lyon during the winter window.
But Tuchel has insisted that Kenedy, who was recalled from his stint at Flamengo in January, is tailor-made to play at wing-back, should he opt to play with a five-man defence.
‘If we play with a wing-back, it’s a perfect role for him given his profile as a player,’ the German boss told a press conference on Friday.
‘He has a strong left foot, strong in possession, can shoot and cross very precisely. That’s more or less it.
‘He’s very, very talented, there was never a doubt about that. Now it’s about having the right mentality and having the right mindset to take this huge opportunity.
‘He will fight for his place and the others hopefully will take on the fight to not let him take their place away. Then it depends which formation we play but a wing-back role suits him very, very good.’
Kenedy first joined Chelsea back in 2015, but has been sent out on a number of loan spells since.
On the 25-year-old’s big chance back at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel added: ‘It’s a clean slate and I think he knows it. I followed Kenedy for many years and he was very impressive in the beginning.
‘He lost track a little bit and maybe couldn’t fulfil the demands from the outside I had. But this is…
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Source : metro
