Why Andre Schurrle Is the Forgotten Chelsea Player Who Will Explode in 2015/16

Sorry to burst your bubble—we're not here to talk about Chelsea midfielder Juan Cuadrado.

So disappointing has Cuadrado been in a Chelsea shirt, the expectation is that he'll be the forgotten man who surprises us all next season.

Cuadrado has been a shadow of the player we saw at Fiorentina and during the 2014 World Cup. He's barely registered on the radar at Stamford Bridge other than to be a figure of frustration—a man who has far from delivered on the reputation that persuaded Chelsea to pay £26 million for him.

Things were that bad for Cuadrado in 2014-15—surely they can only get better. Well, that's the theory, anyway.

Whereas Cuadrado has lived in Willian's shadow since joining Chelsea, next season could well see him live in the shadow of the man he replaced in west London: Andre Schurrle.

Sure, Schurrle is no longer a Chelsea player, so it's only natural that he'll be the last player many think of at Stamford Bridge next season.

But like Kevin De Bruyne before him, Schurrle has the potential to haunt Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho may not regret selling De Bruyne when he did—after all, the Belgian did very little in England—yet Schurrle is a player who made a big impact in the Premier League.

The German was a versatile part of the Chelsea squad, and his contribution was significant at times, scoring a hat-trick against Fulham to give Chelsea all three points in a London derby, while also scoring vital goals against Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.

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The feeling was that his departure from west London came somewhat premature, and next season, Schurrle can show us why.

Especially if Cuadrado's struggles continue.

What ended Schurrle's Chelsea career was a dismal three-month spell from October to January. He picked up an illness on international duty, and with the injury that followed that, he was never quite the same player in Chelsea colours.

It's a point Schurrle raised himself shortly after leaving Chelsea to join Wolfsburg.

"My first season was very good, then there was the World Cup. I was a starter at the beginning of the season until an illness moved me behind. But the team continued to win," he explained, per Sky Sports.

"I am still confident and know what I can do."

It's interesting how Schurrle's season crumbled. From scoring an excellent goal when he finished off a fine move in the opening game of the season, he was soon deemed surplus by Mourinho.

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He looked off the pace, and any appearances he was making post-Halloween were horror shows—being hooked at half-time or dropped from matchday squads altogether.

Schurrle has so much more to offer than what we saw in that difficult period, though.

And playing at Wolfsburg, where first-team opportunities will be heightened, we can expect he'll be back to the sort of form that persuaded Chelsea to sign him in the first place.

Schurrle has been a considerable figure wherever he has played. He was influential at Bayer Leverkusen, made an impression at Chelsea and, lest we forget, was the player who made the assist for Mario Goetze to score the winning goal in the World Cup final.

A player of that ilk doesn't disappear after a poor season, a season that wasn't helped with a lack of training due to a heavy schedule.

Schurrle's been consistently good wherever he has traveled.

"I'm still missing the last per cent," Schurrle conceded to Bild (per Daily Mail) last season. "At top English clubs during the season the players are hardly loaded with any training, since it's almost all about regeneration and tactics. 

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"In England you can get your fitness through the season with the games. At Chelsea because we had the championship, Champions League and the different club competitions, we played every three days."

With the opportunity to effectively press the reset button this summer, Schurrle's fortunes will change.

His biggest enemy in those decisive months at Chelsea wasn't a lack of talent, but more the impact of what heavy-loading his schedule meant.

With just two weeks to prepare for the season after the World Cup, perhaps Chelsea could have done more to protect Schurrle.

Given more time off and being eased back into a full schedule would have been beneficial for him, but instead he was reintegrated too quickly and paid the ultimate price as a result.

When we think to the key moments of 2014/15, Chelsea weren't free of loss, either. The bank balance looks healthier for the profit made on Schurrle, yet when Mourinho needed a player like him, he had Cuadrado.

Schurrle changed things against PSG a year earlier, so as the game edged away from Chelsea in the last-16 tie with the Ligue 1 champions, the stage was set for him to do it again.

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Chelsea's Champions League dream was ended last term, not through the brilliance of Laurent Blanc's tactics, but Mourinho's inability to react to the game, as he simply didn't have the players.

Schurrle's absence was a significant hole in the Chelsea squad.

Cuadrado wasn't good enough or trusted by the manager—and that's why he made just 13 appearances. It wasn't about him adjusting to the Premier League, but more a case of not showing that he was capable in training and when he played.

More often than not, Schurrle did that for Chelsea, and in 2015/16, he'll be doing it all again for Wolfsburg.

Meanwhile, Chelsea must hope Cuadrado does something similar. And here's to hoping.

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes