March 31 (Reuters) - Chelsea's youth-heavy recruitment strategy may have complicated their ability to compete for major trophies and the club must strike a better balance between development and experience, left back Marc Cucurella has said.
Chelsea were dumped out of the Champions League following a thumping 8-2 aggregate defeat by Paris St Germain in the last 16 and have won only four of their last 12 matches across all competitions.
Their struggles have fuelled speculation over the future of midfielder Enzo Fernandez, despite the Argentine World Cup winner being under contract until 2032.
"You are fighting and training every day only to realise, at the very end, that when games matter, we are still a bit away from the top level," Cucurella told The Athletic in an interview published on Tuesday.
"I understand this is part of the club's policy, and that they want to take this direction - signing young players and looking to the future.
"But, for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this make you feel discouraged."
The 27-year-old Spain international said Chelsea had a good core of players but needed more experience to challenge for major honours.
"Signing young players only might complicate achieving those goals. Against PSG, we lacked players that had gone through situations like that," he added.
Cucurella also said that the January departure of head coach Enzo Maresca, who led the London team to the Club World Cup title last year, had had a big impact on the squad.
"These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision. To make a change like that, the best thing is to wait until the end of the season," he said.
"You would give everyone, the players and the new manager, time to get ready, have a full pre-season."
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
