Chelsea’s clean sheet record proves defensive rotation is no issue says defiant Maresca | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has been speaking to the media today, and after a poor result in midweek there were a lot of questions about his decision to rotate his team heavily and regularly.

Chelsea’s clean sheets prove there’s no defensive problem says Maresca

Tosin Adarabioyo in Chelsea training. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

It was put to him that the sort of defensive mistakes that cost his side in Baku on Wednesday were more likely because he was constantly chopping and changing his back line.

As you’d expect, Maresca defended it as a necessary evil, first blaming injury then claiming that his defence was actually doing ok:

“I think, first of all, at the beginning of the season, with Levi’s [Colwill] injury, for sure we lost, I said many times, in my view, in the way we wanted to play, our best defender, in terms of build-up,” the coach said.

“From there, we tried to find solutions. We tried to solve problems. We tried to adjust things. We were playing with three at the back in build-up. We started to play with two at the back in four or five games. We tried to find solutions, different solutions.

“Last game, we kept a clean sheet with Trev [Chalobah] and Wes [Fofana]. They just said to me this morning that last year, after 11 Premier League games, we had two clean sheets. This season, after 10 games, we have already four clean sheets. So, I don’t know [if there’s a problem].”

Well we have to believe our eyes, that we see lots of disjointed, shaky defending, and picking the same players would probably help with that.

In other news…

As well as speaking about the defence, Maresca addressed the general concept of his rotation policy and why he thought it was so necessary in a busy season, particularly in the modern game.

Maresca also spoke about Estevao and whether the Brazilian winger could be in line for a start tomorrow against Wolves.