Why Enzo Maresca needs Chelsea defenders to raise their level as fitness issues enforce selection decision | OneFootball

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has admitted that he would have preferred to field a consistent centre-back pairing but could not do so amid the current injury issues.

Maresca confirmed that he will rotate his team for the Carabao Cup fourth-round trip to Wolves on Wednesday, with three key players, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, and Joao Pedro, likely given some rest.

Aside from these three, there could be some changes in defence, as well.

The Italian has deployed four different centre-back pairings in Chelsea's last five games, and while it has been far from ideal, Maresca insisted that his team is improving defensively.

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"We also need to manage players like, for instance, Wes Fofana, who is back from injury, Benoit (Badiashile), unfortunate that he's injured again, but we try to manage him," Maresca said about his team rotation during Tuesday's press conference.

"And then we have Tosin (Adarabioyo), this season he had a problem... Josh (Acheampong), Trev (Chalobah), we are trying to rotate a little bit for many reasons.

"For instance, last season we played, I think the first five or six months with Wes and Levi (Colwill). It's good because they can, you know, the combination, they can grow together.

"But in this moment we are trying to rotate, and for sure, slowly, slowly, we get better."

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As Maresca pointed out, the centre-back rotation is clearly out of necessity, as he would have liked to have some stability.

"Consistency is always better in any aspect, for players, for the team, for anyone," he argued.

The Blues have conceded 11 goals in the Premier League this season, the joint-third highest in the top half of the table.

Maresca's side have also kept just three clean sheets from nine league games, the joint-seventh highest in the competition.