Former Chelsea star Craig Burley has admitted he is baffled as to why Ruben Loftus-Cheek does not feature regularly for the Blues first team, despite in his view offering more than Mateo Kovacic or Ross Barkley.
The Blues were handed their fourth defeat from their last five away games in the Premier League by Everton, who registered an impressive 2-0 win at Goodison Park on Sunday.
Maurizio Sarri was reluctant to dish out a starting role to Loftus-Cheek on Merseyside, despite the young midfielder impressing against Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League.
The 23-year-old came off the bench just after the hour mark after replacing Barkley and Burley has admitted he cannot get his head around why Loftus-Cheek does not feature regularly for the first team.
Burley went on to claim that Loftus-Cheek offers more dynamism to Chelsea’s midfield compared to either Kovacic or Barkley and stressed that his lack of involvement is baffling at the moment.
“I don’t understand at this moment in time why Loftus-Cheek is not a regular starter and I still don’t understand why Jorginho is in the team and [N’Golo] Kante is not playing in a deeper role and either Kovacic or Barkley play”, Burley said on the ESPN FC show.
“I think Loftus-Cheek offers far more dynamism and guile and strength and power from the middle of the park than either Kovacic or Barkley.
"But he continues, apart from the Europa League [game against Dynamo Kyiv] where he played well, to be on the bench in big domestic games.”
Loftus-Cheek, who has a contract at Chelsea that runs until the summer of 2021, has been restricted to just 455 minutes of playing time in the Premier League this term.
