Chelsea: will Enzo Maresca regret the Brentford selection?
When Enzo Maresca’s initial formation was announced before Chelsea’s trip to Brentford on Sunday, there was a sense of surprise among many Blues fans on social media.
And, after a draw unchanged in Brentford has stretched the race without eight -games victories to leave their hopes in the Champions League, the questions about the selection of his team have become even stronger.
Maresca rested Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, Marc Cucurella and a Pedro Neto in shape against their rivals of West London. He arrives in Malo Gusto, Kierrnan Dewsbury-Hall, Christopher Nkunku and Noni Madueke, which everyone fought to have an impact.
All four stars resting Chelsea arrived in the second half and the blues went on to have only six shots and one in target before the 17 -hit interval and four in target.
The Chelsea boss also faced criticism from the sections of the goal away, which showed a growing frustration for his style of play, including “attack, attack, attack,” and “we had a blow” during a first half scarce.
The greatest concern is that, although Chelsea remains fourth, the struggle for the Champions League places seems more and more competitive, with Manchester City, Aston Villa and Newcastle all three points from Blues.
With a quarter -final of the Lega Conference against Legia Warsaw who will arrive on Thursday, and artists of the caliber of Palmer and Jackson have just returned from injuries, Maresca has been fast to defend her team rotation.
The Italian also blamed the rapid turnaround for his selection bet, claiming that it was unfair that the blues had 24 hours less than Brentford to prepare for the game, having played Tottenham at home on Thursday.
“Not everyone was 100%,” he said. “The idea was to start one way and end up in another way. The plan almost worked because we created more in the second half, but the volume probably was not enough to win the game.”
If pressed by BBC Sport on the fact that he could have rotated in other games, he added: “This is a different opinion. I am here to try to do the best for the club and the players.
“I work every day with the players so you can see how they are. I’m not sure that the spurs at home are more difficult than Brentford. For me, they are all complicated.”
