William Gallas has singled out two Chelsea stars as the most underperforming players of the current Premier League season.
In what has been a lackluster campaign for Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino’s leadership, the team has secured only 13 victories in 33 matches, placing them at a disappointing ninth in the league standings.
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As the season nears its end with only five matches left, Chelsea finds itself 19 points adrift of the coveted Champions League qualification spots and a substantial 32 points behind the league frontrunners and city adversaries, Arsenal.
Gallas has expressed particular dissatisfaction with the performances of Raheem Sterling and Mykhailo Mudryk, dubbing them the season’s most significant disappointments.
Despite his successful tenure at Manchester City as a prolific striker and consistent victor, Sterling has yet to find his footing after his £50m transfer to Stamford Bridge in 2022, with a modest tally of six league goals this season.
Mudryk, on the other hand, has contributed even less, with the Ukrainian winger struggling to live up to the high expectations set by his £89m transfer fee from Shakhtar Donetsk in the previous year.
When asked to name his biggest flop of the season, Gallas told Gambling Zone: ‘I think Raheem Sterling has been a big disappointment. When I watch him play, he doesn’t look like a player that will return to the level that he was at Liverpool and Manchester City.
‘This is his second season with the club, and he hasn’t showed anything. For a guy that has won so much in his career, he should be doing a lot more for Chelsea. He hasn’t done anything.
‘Also, Mudryk, but the circumstances around his poor performances are a little bit different. We don’t know how he has been affected by the war in Ukraine. We don’t know what is happening with him – it must be very difficult for him.
‘It looks like he isn’t enjoying his football or his time at Chelsea. When he plays, you can see he isn’t enjoying it.
‘It’s a shame because everyone thought this would be the year where he showed his potential – I also thought that he would be a different player this season.’
Pressed on why Mudryk could be struggling at the club, Gallas added: ‘It’s hard for me to comment on why Mudryk looks like he doesn’t have the confidence or the enjoyment in his football.
‘I don’t know if a change of scenery would benefit the player. We don’t know if a new club would change his fortunes on the pitch.
‘We don’t know what is going on in his private life. The situation with the war is very hard – he could still have family in Ukraine.
‘Only the players that are around him, the guys that live with him every single day, will know what the answer is.’
