Marc Cucurella and Vitaliy Mykolenko have been a regular feature in their team during 2022/23, alternating between their most familiar role as a left-back and games as a wing-back or on the left of a back three.

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Mykolenko has played in all but one of Everton’s Premier League fixtures so far, with 25 of those 26 appearances coming from the start, giving him a slight advantage over Cucurella, who has started 18 of his 21 league games for Chelsea. With the Spaniard also being substituted nine times, he has played 703 minutes less in the competition.

Cucurella efficient on the ball

In possession, there is a clear trend when comparing the two players’ statistics, with Cucurella offering quality over his Ukrainian opponent's quantity.

On the face of it, and perhaps helped by playing more minutes in the Premier League this season, Mykolenko has the edge creatively, finding a team-mate with 14 crosses to Cucurella’s eight and providing 17 key passes to six.

However, in percentages, their crossing is very similar, Mykolenko achieving an accuracy of 32 per cent, only slightly higher than Marc’s 30 per cent, and the Chelsea man is the one who has actually created goals with his key passes, registering two assists in 2022/23 while Mykolenko has none.

The accuracy percentages actually swing fully in Cucurella’s favour when all passes are considered too, as the Spaniard has been successful with 86 per cent of his 814 passes, compared to Mykolenko’s 77 per cent of 643 passes. The margin only widens when looking at passes played in the opposition’s half, where Cucurella has an 80 per cent success rate to the Everton full-back’s 70 per cent.

Mykolenko busy at the back

Given that only three teams in the Premier League have a worse goal difference than Everton’s -18 this season, it is no surprise that Mykolenko has been required to do plenty of defending for the Toffees.

That means his defensive statistics are comfortably ahead of Cucurella’s in several areas, most notably clearances (67 to 33), shots blocked (14 to eight) and interceptions (32 to 13). Despite that, though, our 24-year-old has won more tackles, being successful in 27 challenges to Mykolenko’s 22.

Cucurella has also given away less fouls, being penalised by the officials 14 times, while Mykolenko has conceded 25 free-kicks, although both players have been booked three times each in 2022/23.