“Got many wrong” – Maresca failed first Champions League test claims top Chelsea journalist | OneFootball

It has not been a good week for Enzo Maresca.

His team drew with Brentford then lost to Bayern Munich and Manchester United all the space of 7 days. Not only are the results bad, his decisions during each of those game have really been under scrutiny.

Simon Johnson’s piece for the Athletic neatly runs through them and tries to figure out the logic.

Johnson on Maresca’s tricky week

Cole Palmer goes off injured against Manchester United.(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

“The Italian made big decisions in all three games and the concern will be that he got many of them wrong,” Johnson concludes.

“This was the first test Maresca has faced in his coaching career when it comes to managing a squad through a Premier League-Champions League-Premier League schedule and the results alone will say he did not pass it.”

He tried to rotate the team against Brentford in advance of the Bayern Munich game in midweek – but the team he put out couldn’t get the job done and he was forced to bring on the big guns at half time.

Against Bayern he used his best team and lost. Then against Man U he made bizarre decisions following the red card that were quickly shown to be the wrong ones. Poor Cole Palmer is carrying a groin injury and needed a break – instead he was forced to come at half time against Brentford, played all 97 minutes against Bayern, then lasted just 20 minutes against Man U before limping off.

Maresca failed both to rest him and to get any points. Now Palmer for a significantly longer period.

Maresca must take advantage of Lincoln change to refresh

A game against Lincoln tomorrow gives the team a desperately needed chance to rest and rotate. But it also gives the coach another chance to puzzle us all with his selection and in game changes.

We beg him to just pick some young players and take his free hit with the fans rather than wheeling out any first team regular players who need a break.