“No” – Enzo Maresca makes his stance on Estevao Premier League starts very clear | OneFootball

Estevao Willian stole the spotlight again last night with a superb showing against Barcelona. After the game, Enzo Maresca was asked whether the pressure on him to start the Brazilian in the Premier League was growing.

Barca start proves Estevao a first team regular says Maresca

Chelsea celebrate in a group after Barca win. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

According to the Chelsea boss, it’s nothing to do with a first team or second team, it’s all about the opposition and the game plan:

“No, to be honest [it doesn’t get harder to leave him out when he does well].”

“Because if he doesn’t play, Pedro Neto plays wide in his position. And Pedro is good. And we are happy with Pedro. We try just to defend the game plan, we use 11 players. Tonight we decided, probably in the most difficult game of the season, we decided to play with Estevao. So I’m not a manager that I don’t allow players to play minutes. It’s just the game plan.

“The game plan always decides the first 11. It’s the reason why we changed so much. And you say that we are unpredictable. But it’s the game plan. The game plan defines the first 11. Now the next one is Arsenal. The game plan is not always good, sometimes it’s also wrong. It defines the first 11. And Estevao, when the game plan is for him, he’s going to play. And for sure he’s going to play many games because he’s very good.”

The pressure will continue to grow on Maresca to use Estevao more considering he plays like this, but in reality, as the manager said, it’s all going well with his current usage, so why mess with that?

In other news…

The win that prepared Chelsea for moments like this came back in the summer, according to their manager, who admitted that the Club World Cup had played a huge role in developing his side.