Ruben Loftus-Cheek: We should be making more chances

Ruben Loftus-Cheek believes that with the ball possession Chelsea had against Juventus, they should be creating more chances. He made those comments following their 0-1 defeat at the hands of Juventus in the Champions League group stage. However, he stressed the importance of staying mentally strong ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Southampton. On Wednesday night, the resolute Italian side inflicted a second successive 1-0 loss on the Blues. Loftus-Cheek has been brought on in both games during the second half, however, he and his teammates were not able to conjure up a late equaliser.

“With the ball possession we had, we should be making more chances and being more dangerous,” Ruben was quoted as saying by the club’s website. “The way Juventus play, and how good they are defending in that tight, compact block, if you’re not at the quality you should be it’s going to be hard to break them down. We’re the champions and they respect us as a team. You could see that’s why they camped behind the ball. It worked for them so well done to Juventus. We had a few chances at the end, but if you’re not at your top quality in the Champions League sometimes you get a defeat.”

‘We need to get through this, work at it’

The victory leaves Juventus at the top of Group H with two matches played till now. However, Loftus-Cheek is focused on getting back to winning ways against Southampton this weekend.

“Anyone can win this competition. You want to be peaking when you get to the business end. Sometimes you can afford a loss in the group stage. We need to get through this, work at it. It will come, and hopefully we will look back and see this as a hurdle.

“We need to reflect on this game, see where we can get better, regroup and bounce back. Now it’s about the mental game and we need to win in the Premier League on Saturday.”

‘There is a lot to improve on’

Callum Hudson-Odoi, one of the changes made by the Blues boss, took over at right wing-back. It was he who crossed for one of the chances his side had late in the game, but Romelu Lukaku headed that one wide.

“We came with the mentality and determination to win and we gave it our best but it was not good enough,” said Hudson-Odoi. “We know that and we have to go back and reflect on it. There is a lot to improve on and a lot to work on.

“We did well in certain aspects but we can always do better. We were disappointed to concede a goal so quickly after the start of the second half and we reacted well, but we didn’t get the goal we should have got.”

Meanwhile, Ben Chilwell, who operated on the left flank, stated that the team stayed in the game till the end despite not playing at their best. “They built from that the longer the game went on,” he continued.

“They had a game plan and executed it very well. They grew in confidence, the crowd got behind them and it got more difficult for us to score. We did have a few chances but not enough clear-cut ones to win the game.

“We had a lot of possession, we weren’t at our best but we stayed in the game until the very last minute when we had a chance to get a draw, which when you are not playing your best football is a good result when you come here.”