4 reasons why Ruben Loftus-Cheek needs to leave Chelsea this summer

#2: His weaknesses will only be improved by more experience

Loftus-Cheek still needs to work on his consistency and stamina

The scouting report on Loftus-Cheek tends to describe him as a box-to-box midfielder who’s capable of breaking up opposition plays and acting as a playmaker for his own team, from a deep-lying position or further forward. His dribbling is excellent, he’s quick and powerful and he’s hard to knock off the ball. He’s also capable of scoring and assisting in goals.

So what exactly are his weaknesses? Essentially, Loftus-Cheek doesn’t have any major holes in his game, but areas he has struggled with are his stamina in tougher games and his consistency, as he’s tended to drift in and out of games at times. The latter was seen a couple of times for England in the World Cup, in fact. Both of these point to one issue – he simply lacks experience at the top level.

It’s hardly surprising given he’s only ever started 27 Premier League games – 21 of those coming with Crystal Palace during his loan spell there last season. In comparison, Dele Alli, who is the same age as Loftus-Cheek, has started 97 Premier League games in the same time period. But of course, Alli has been granted far more opportunities at Tottenham and thus is further developed than the Chelsea starlet.

With Loftus-Cheek’s weaknesses being ones that will only begin to fade away with more top-level experience, he simply cannot afford to spend another season as a bit-part at Chelsea. He needs to be starting games each and every week, assuming he’s healthy, and it just doesn’t seem likely that he’ll do that at Stamford Bridge.