Chelsea hierarchy back Enzo Maresca's heavily-criticised decision despite Qarabag draw | OneFootball

Chelsea owners and sporting directors are fully on board with Enzo Maresca's team rotation policy despite the 2-2 Champions League draw with Qarabag on Wednesday, according to reports.

Maresca made seven changes to Chelsea's starting line-up against Qarabag, continuing the trend of recent weeks.

The Italian even hit back at criticism over his approach, pointing out that no one questioned his decision when Chelsea were winning.

Maresca further explained that the rotations have mostly been out of necessity, intending to reduce the workload of players such as Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo.

"The Club World Cup affected (us) a lot. We tried to rotate," the Italian explained.

"When we win, nobody mentions that, but when we don't, everyone is focused on that."

That said, it is also easy to understand the frustration of some fans, who wanted to see more stability in the team, particularly after the recent winning run.

Maresca is unlikely to change his approach, however, given that he has apparently had the backing of the club hierarchy.

According to the Daily Telegraph's Matt Law, Chelsea's owners and sporting directors give their full backing to Maresca's rotation policy.

They believe that this could benefit the team in the long run, despite the short-term risks in the first half of the season, such as the draw with Qarabag.

Chelsea have made more changes (85) to their line-ups than any other team in the Premier League this season.

The extensive injury list earlier this season played a big part in this, obviously, but there remain questions whether some of these changes are purely because Maresca had to keep everyone in the squad happy.

While rotating attackers seems to be the norm everywhere, teams tend to prefer a stable backline, while Maresca has deployed five different centre-back pairings in the last five games.