Maresca has told us one starter tonight – here’s what happens with his alternate | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca’s whole managerial career so far has been building up to this point – his first Champions League game.

Big questions less interesting than the small questions

It’s a serious one too. Away at the Allianz Arena to face Bayern Munich. Juicy stuff. His press conference yesterday was full of big picture questions about his aims for this season and whether he thought this team were really good enough to win this competition.

That’s all well and good, but you almost know before the question is over what the answer is going to be.

“We’re just taking it game by game, etc. etc.”

In a way, the more specific questions about the technical details are what are interesting. A case in point is Maresca’s answer on Filip Jorgensen.

The second choice goalkeeper got regular action last season in the Conference League, where he started all but one game. Meanwhile the much maligned Robert Sanchez was in charge of the Premier League.

Maresca on keeper rotation

Enzo Maresca in his Champions League press conference.

But it won’t be as easy this year. Jorgensen was able to play in games where the opposition would barely have a shot. Maresca wasn’t sacrificing anything by using his second choice in those situations. But this year will be different – Sanchez is going to have to play in the Champions League and the Premier League.

We know he starts tonight, but Maresca did reveal there would be rotation in goal – it would just be done ad hoc rather than splitting the competitions up.

“For sure, with the amount of games that we have, Filip is going to play games in the Premier League, in the Champions League, in the FA Cup and in the Carabao Cup,” the Blues boss explained.

Given goalkeepers don’t really get tired from playing, we’d imagine it will end up being the long trips across Europe in the CL that Jorgensen ends up starting in.