Chelsea boss Maresca explains Cole Palmer sub in Man Utd defeat | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca revealed that he subbed off Cole Palmer in the first half of their 2-1 defeat to Man Utd because he was not fully fit coming into the game.

The Italian was forced into making changes shortly after kick off when Robert Sanchez was sent off for fouling Bryan Mbeumo as the attacker bore down on goal.

“Very difficult because after three or four minutes with the red card, it completely changed the game,” he admitted to Sky Sports after the final whistle. “All the plan is in the bin. So it was very complicated.”

Asked what he made of Sanchez’s red card, Maresca responded: “Nothing. It’s a situation that we can avoid because we knew these kind of long balls for (Benjamin) Sesko, they try to flick for Mbeumo. We knew that. Unfortunately we conceded that moment. When you are one player down, it becomes completely difficult and changed the game.”

Estevao Willian and Pedro Neto made way for goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen and defender Tosin Adarabioyo as Maresca looked to shore up his defence with a man less on the field.

It did not have the desired effect as Bruno Fernandes opened the scoring shortly after on an extremely wet night at Old Trafford.

Maresca explained that he made the unusual move of a double substitution in order to match up defensively with United’s front five.

“They are used to attacking with five players, so in that moment we have to defend with five players. We can defend absolutely with four when we are 11 vs 11, but when we are one player down, the idea was to defend with five.

Chelsea boss Maresca explains Cole Palmer sub in Man Utd defeat

Palmer was then replaced by Andrey Santos in the 21st minute, setting a new Premier League record for the fastest three substitutions in the competition’s history. The Chelsea playmaker seemingly aggravated a groin problem he was nursing before the game.

It’s therefore perplexing why Maresca chose to take Estevao off instead of Palmer, given the latter’s fitness issues ahead of the game.

“We decided to change with Estevao and Pedro Neto and the after we changed Cole because he made an effort to play this game because he was not 100 per cent fit,” he said.

“This morning he had a test and he was okay but not 100 per cent fit. So we decided to change him after 20 minutes.”

Casemiro doubled United’s lead before getting himself sent off on the stroke of halftime. Trevoh Chalobah pulled one back in the 80th minute, but they failed to find an extra gear in attack in their vain search for an equaliser.

Read – Chelsea set unlikely Premier League record as game unravels against Man Utd

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