“Great credit” – Match of the Day pundit forced to admit Maresca trick worked perfectly | OneFootball

The reviews are still coming in for Saturday’s big win over Liverpool for Chelsea.

Some of those talking about it are famous Liverpool fans – and so it’s always interesting to hear their takes.

Danny Murphy played for the Reds, and even he had to admit that there had been one tweak which manager Enzo Maresca pulled out which was a masterstroke.

Murphy says Malo Gusto switch caught out Liverpool

Malo Gusto against Lincoln. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

“What I think he [Maresca] deserves great credit for the other day, and I did find a strange one, is that he put Gusto in midfield, Reece James at right back.”

When we saw the teams, we assumed it was James in midfield and Gusto at right back. That’s a setup which Maresca has used before, including against PSG in the Club World Cup final and against Bayern Munich a couple of weeks ago.

Instead, it was flipped. And Gusto, for all his flaws, did a great job as basically a traditional number 8. He got up and down, kept it simple, and even assisted Moises Caicedo’s opening goal with a simple pass. Meanwhile James held down the right side and eventually switched inside when both starting centre-backs were hurt.

Maresca deserves credit for selection gamble

Murphy gave credit to Maresca for his decision, noting that the shift in formation frustrated Liverpool. He added that it was a gamble that could have backfired:

“Maybe it was a small blessing in a way, that he didn’t play a 10 like Palmer, because it caused Liverpool’s midfield a lot of problems. But he deserves great credit for trying that, because if that had gone wrong, it would have been picked up on.”

Gusto started life at the Lyon academy as a midfielder – we wonder if we will see more of this in games to come?