Cardiff vs Chelsea – Team News: Enzo Maresca goes full rotation despite criticism with just one first team star | OneFootball

Chelsea face Cardiff at the Cardiff City Stadium in just over an hour, and the teams are in!

Enzo Maresca was always going to be rotating his team for this one, it was just a question of how much he was willing to change. He’s been criticised for mixing up his team too much in some games, but he’s got so many competing priorities with 4 competitions to play in and players already at their physical limit after a busy summer.

In goal, Filip Jorgensen gets a run out – he may not get many more, frankly. Every game from here matters so much.

In defence, it’s the full second string – Josh Acheampong at right back, Tosin in the middle with Benoit Badiashile, and Jorrel Hato on the left.

In midfield, Moises Caicedo’s recent suspensions means he’s fit enough to bring some first team quality to this lineup. He plays alongside Andrey Santos in the middle. Ahead of them, Tyrique George plays on the right wing with Jamie Gittens on the left.

Facundo Buonanotte plays in the hole behind Marc Guiu.

It’s almost full rotation from the manager, who clearly knows his priority is not this competition, even though there’s the chance to get into the semi final with a win tonight. There’s more than enough quality in there to get the job done, but we’ve seen in previous rounds it’s not always that simple…

Here are the full team line-ups for Cardiff vs Chelsea (kick off at 20:00 GMT)

CHELSEA:

Chelsea’s team to face Cardiff in the EFL Cup.

In other news…

Enzo Maresca’s outburst over the weekend was extraordinary, and one of the big conclusions from it is that the manager may be pushing to leave next year.

Chelsea are in action tonight and this is the team we think Enzo Maresca is going to pick for the game. There are a lot of questions about how hard the rotation should be from the manager.