One key takeaway from Enzo Maresca that I’ve noticed so far is that he’s doing his best to have a regular ‘best Xl’ at Chelsea.
It’s clear that previous Chelsea managers have found this difficult to do because Chelsea have had so many injuries recently. But Maresca enjoy absolute luxury and have a perfectly fit squad that many of us thought we would never see again! Once again, I would like to thank the club, coaches and medical team for getting us through this. What they have done to get there deserves great praise.
Even though injuries still occur and are unavoidable, Maresca will use his ‘best Xl’ but fill in. So now his best xl is becoming pretty clear.
This is what it looks like now when everyone is healthy.
Sánchez, James, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Labia, Palmer; Sancho, Maduke, Jackson.
This doesn’t mean that others can’t try and get into teams ahead of these names. And as I said, we’re knocking on the door very hard right now.
But choosing Rabia over Enzo Fernandes in the biggest game of our season so far on Sunday was very significant. This was one of the major decisions I mentioned a few weeks ago wondering what he was going to do. And he went with Rabiah.
So does this mean Maresca has made his biggest and most important squad selection to date? I believe so.
I think Rabia and Fernandes will be rotated more than most due to Rabia’s recent injury. However, I believe this points to the fact that Maresca now looks to Lavia over Fernandez if he were to choose his ‘best’ Chelsea XI.
I think many people will disagree with this choice. But what does this mean for Enzo, who the club invested more than £100m to sign? Now there’s a big question mark behind it.
I like our midfield, but as I said before I think they still lack steel and creativity if Fernandes doesn’t start much. Lavia and Caicedo provide more control and stability in deeper areas and in the goalkeeper’s play. But in such a high-end realm, there’s a huge responsibility purely on Cole Palmer to be the creator, and of course, he can’t always showcase every single game (more on that in another article today).
I rate Caicedo and Lavia higher than Fernandez, but I still rate Fernandez. Still, I wonder, what about my man? Jai A recent segment on the SPTC podcast said that Fernandes would in fact never be a Premier League player and would be much better suited to somewhere like La Liga. But I wouldn’t blame him one bit because I rate him and always have. He doesn’t start in our best Xl now and I agree with Maresca.
