Enzo Maresca denies poor performance led to him embarrassing players at half time | OneFootball

We would be lying if we said Saturday night’s result hasn’t made us really concerned about Chelsea’s squad this season.

There is no shortage of depth, but injuries have depleted that already, and it was worrying to see how much of a mess we were in for a game just 3 weeks into the season, before European football has even kicked in.

Enzo Maresca played a weakened team, which was understandable given there are two big games coming up next week, and given we were coming off the international break.

But he was forced to make changes at half time to bring on the big guns after the starters played a dreadful first 45 minutes.

Maresca explains his half time changes

He explained his decisions to Chelsea’s official website after full time, claiming that some of the subs were pre-planned, not a response to the first 45 minutes:

“We planned 45 minutes for Wes[ley Fofana] because he was a long time out. We planned not all the game for Jorrel [Hato], because I’ve said many times that when you’ve just arrived from another country you need time to adapt,” Maresca explained .

“Facundo [Buonanotte] joined us two weeks ago, physically also he is not 100 per cent. We needed to manage different situations, like Estevao [Willian] had to miss out. Joao Pedro also was not 100 per cent, but he did the effort to play part of the game.”

Cole Palmer forced into action by starting team’s failures

Cole Palmer with a Chelsea logo. (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images)

A major issue with this team right now is not having a fit Cole Palmer. Maresca tried to rest him, but was forced to bring him on later in the game. Palmer scored and helped turn the game around:

“Cole was not fit to play from the start. That’s from the medical staff, from the player. When we take a decision about an injured player it’s always from all of us. When Cole is fit we are all very happy. I have said many times that with Cole in the team we are a much better team.”