Frank Lampard has re-arrived at Chelsea and been thrown in at the deep end without much hope of swimming.
Indeed, Lampard may well sink when the Blues take on Real Madrid this evening, with the Spanish giants easy favourites to take a win.
Carlo Ancelotti's men may well be off the pace in La Liga – sitting second to Barcelona – but in Europe they are the dominant force we have all come to expect. As such, Chelsea's hopes of sealing a place in the semi-finals are slim.
They have scored just 29 times in 30 Premier League outings while their interim boss lost his first game in charge at Wolves last weekend. All things point to a straightforward victory for Madrid, therefore.
That said, Lampard could boost his side's chances of securing an unlikely result by dropping Marc Cucurella to the bench.
How has Cucurella played this season?
The Spanish wing-back arrived in west London after Chelsea paid Brighton a fee of a whopping £60m.
The curly-haired sensation is often a marvel in offensive areas, using his immense energy to burst forward in search of crossing positions down the flanks.
It's an impressive aspect of the £175k-per-week defender's game, with Cucurella ranking in the top 13% of positionally similar players in Europe's top five leagues for passes into the final third.
Yet, despite ranking in the best 3% of full-backs for tackles per 90, it is in a defensive sense where the former Barca man is "completely out of his depth", as per writer Zach Lowy.
The fact of the matter is that the 24-year-old has very quickly become a liability at the back for Chelsea, with his performances at Stamford Bridge a "shadow" of what he produced on the south coast – in the words of content creator Sripad.
Indeed, the 5 foot 8 full-back has now been at fault on several occasions this term, most notably in the recent defeat to Aston Villa.
His "schoolboy defending", as pundit Lee Hendrie called it, ensured that he simply gifted a goal to Unai Emery's men with Cucurella's errant back pass finding Ollie Watkins who then scored.
Crucially, the ex-Getafe man also left Matheus Nunes unmarked in the build-up to his stunning winner at Molineux a matter of days ago too.
That type of form simply has to see him dropped, with Lampard surely better off settling for Ben Chilwell at left-back instead.
Although the 26-year-old has been injured for much of the campaign, he is a crucial cog in Chelsea's system and notably 'attacks space off-the-ball better than any full-back or wing-back in the game', as per BBC Sport's Raj Chohan.
Of course, Cucurella is also good in attacking areas but Chilwell offers that extra reliability and composure in the backline. That will undoubtedly be needed against Karim Benzema and co on Wednesday evening.
