Ruben Loftus-Cheek is one of those youngsters that the people of England have invested a lot of interest in. The English midfielder impressed during his season long stint at Crystal Palace in the 2017-18 season. He subsequently earned a call up to the national team and was part of Southgate's unit that reached the semifinals of the FIFA 2018 World Cup which was held in Russia.
Despite his impressive showings, Loftus-Cheek is finding it hard to nail down a starting berth as Chelsea have a surplus of midfielders in their squad. Sarri preferring Ross Barkley ahead of Loftus-Cheek, to play alongside N'Golo Kante and Jorginho, has reportedly not gone down well with the player.
There were several rumours linking him to a move away from the club. However, gaffer Maurizio Sarri has now come out and put all those rumours to rest by suggesting that Ruben-Loftus Cheek remains very much a part of his plans.
Sarri suggests that the midfielder will become a regular feature once the Carabao cup competition and the Europa League starts.
Speaking to the press ahead of their Saturday home clash against Bournemouth, Sarri said,
“I can say that I am really very happy with him because, in the last 10 days, he has improved a lot, so we're really very happy with him."
“I think that he will be important for sure. Starting in September, we will play every three days, so Loftus-Cheek will be very important and useful for us."
“It's not easy to play here, because here there are 20, 25 very good players, so it's not easy to play in the starting XI."
“But I think if he will improve more, he is ready to play from the beginning.”
Sarri did not exactly keep to the niceties as he had this to say when asked about why we haven't seen more of Loftus-Cheek already.
“Because he has to improve, just in order to play my football."
“He has great qualities from a physical point of view, and technical point of view."
“I think he needs to improve from the tactical point of view, nothing else.”