Maresca tries to explain lack of substitutions, Madueke absence against Fulham

Yesterday at 04:16 PM

Hmmm

Enzo Maresca hasn't pressed too many wrong buttons so far in his tenure as Chelsea manager, with the Blues sitting second at Christmas and generally moving in the right direction, trusting the process, and getting the right results.

And I suppose the trouble today, in our Boxing Day defeat against Fulham at home — their first win at the Bridge in nearly half a century — wasn't so much that the wrong buttons were pressed. It was that practically no buttons were pressed at all!

Of the five allowed substitutions, Maresca made just one, after making just two over the weekend, while only making one change to the starting lineup with Marc Cucurella coming back from suspension. For a squad that had gotten used to mass rotations between midweek and weekend action, this was a massive step up in workload.

Unsurprisingly, Chelsea looked dead on our feet for much of the second half, just like against Everton, and while the damage on Sunday was only a draw, the damage today were three dropped points thanks to two goals conceded in the last ten minutes — both scored by substitutes that Fulham put on. In a league as competitive as the Premier League, fresh legs will beat tired legs any day, and twice in festive fixtures.

But while the masses cried out for more substitutions, Maresca just looked down and whispered ... 'No'.

"I try to make changes [...] when we 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.

"Even Nico, but probably because he was sprinting a lot, he was a bit tired so we decided to change. But the rest I think Pedro until the last minutes was doing well, Jadon was doing well, Cole was doing well, Moi and Enzo both very good, so change for change I don't think is worth it."

"[We] decided to change Nico for Christo [but] João more or less has the same position as Cole, in some games they already played together but then it's a matter of balance, this is the season why."

So I guess there you have it; Maresca thought we were doing just fine.

Nkunku has been a regular off the bench, but ironically I don't think he improved our play today and unfortunately that's not the first time that has happened. But I would've thought — and not just in hindsight — that introducing Axel Disasi, Josh Acheampong, or Cesare Casadei would have been prudent moves if we were looking to lock down a 1-0 win, and putting on João Félix could've added some energy to our attack that Jadon Sancho and Cole Palmer no longer were providing by then, but hey.

Meanwhile, the second substitute used on Sunday, Noni Madueke wasn't even in the squad today. His absence was dismissed with a rather curt "technical decision" from the manager, which is a bit of a red flag. What did you do (or not do), Noni?