Maresca accused of making "first big mistake" as Chelsea boss with decision against Fulham

Yesterday at 07:39 AM

After a preseason which didn't go well, Enzo Maresca has seen everything go pretty swimmingly as Chelsea boss ever since.

Results have been good and his team are far ahead of where they were expected to be. They steamrollered the Conference League group stage with their B team, keeping their A team fresh in the league. He picked a team and didn't fiddle with it, he dealt with the potential squad issues well.

It was hard to find a flaw, but today the Chelsea Chronicle have accused him of making "his first big mistake" as manager when we took on Fulham at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day. After leading the game into the last 10 minutes, a tired Chelsea conceded twice.

The Chronicle claim that his decision to use just one sub in the game was criminal, considering the context and the result. We're inclined to agree – in fact we wrote about it on the night.

Maresca defends his decision by saying he didn't want change for change's sake

Asked how on earth he could leave a clearly exhausted team gradually collapse from a winning position to a defeat, Maresca tried to explain that he didn't want to make change for change's sake:

"I try to make changes […] when I see the ones who are playing that are not doing enough. But even tonight even if you have to make a change just because you want to change, but I think tonight the ones who were playing they were doing very good."

We just totally disagree. We're not Joao Felix fans here at all, but we would take him over an exhausted Cole Palmer for the last 20 minutes, and the same can be said for a number of other potential changes in the team.