Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi tells Tuchel his preferred position

Aminat AigbeJanuary 28, 2022

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Callum Hudson-Odoi has recently outlined what his favoured position is.

Hudson-Odoi, of course, broke into the Chelsea senior set-up at a very young age, largely operating as a left or right-winger.

However, Hudson-Odoi has since struggled to hold down a regular spot on the wing, which is not surprising given all the talent Chelsea have in said spot.

As a result, when Thomas Tuchel came in at the back end of January 2021, he opted to start using CHO as a right-wing-back in a back-five and this has largely been his position since.

Despite this, in a recent interview with Chelsea, Hudson-Odoi confirmed he likes to play in more attacking positions such as winger or no.10, adding that playing as a wing-back is defiantly harder: “I’d definitely say I prefer more-attacking positions for myself, as a winger or a No.10 kind of player.

“Obviously I like to be direct and try to create scoring opportunities for the team, hopefully try to score some myself. Playing in that position I’m more comfortable and I feel more free while playing there as well.

“So it’s definitely a nice position, to know that I can go out there, be myself, be free and try to create and score goals as well, but at the same time playing at wing-back is definitely more defensive. Your mentality is more about defending the goal than attacking the goal at times.”

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Hudson-Odoi discusses benefits of being used as wing-back for Chelsea

However, the 21-year-old still believes that playing as a wing-back has benefited his game.

Hudson-Odoi, in the same interview, explained that his experience at wing-back helps with pressing and knowing how to defend from the front if he is ever used as a winger: “I think it’s added more to my defensive side.

“Playing wing-back is more defensive-minded, so you have to judge when to lunge in for a tackle, not just recklessly going in, or making sure you’re in the right position when you’re covering for a team-mate, or if you’re one-on-one against an attacker you just have to make sure you stand your ground and show him outside or inside where there’s more bodies.

“For myself it’s definitely added a defensive side to my game and it helps as well, especially if you’re playing higher up the pitch, for the pressing side and knowing how to defend from the front. So it’s definitely good.”

But whilst CHO has featured on the left-wing of late due to Tuchel changing up formations to help cope with his wing-back issues, it is hard to see him maintaining that spot when Reece James and Ben Chilwell return.