Chelsea’s squad building fails first test as rotation leads to instant pain for Enzo Maresca | OneFootball

This is a syndication of the article originally published for the BBC, here.

Last season’s return to European football after a year away from it was supposed to be useful preparation for this totally rebuilt Chelsea squad. In fact, it looks like it’s had the opposite effect.

The fact that it was only the Conference League being played in midweek meant that Enzo Maresca was able to rotate his team fully, regularly changing eleven players for a game. It seems like that lulled everyone involved into a false sense of security about how ready this squad was for a Champions League return.

You can’t weaken your side to take on Bayern Munich or Barcelona. In fact, most of these games will require the first team. Last week, Maresca tried to rotate against Brentford and ended up caught between two stools. He brought on the big guns at half time; then drew anyway.

Maresca plays the first team and still struggles

Alejandro Garnacho in action against Lincoln. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

The first team then played against Bayern in midweek and looked predictably knackered from about the 50th minute. 72 hours later, an almost identical line-up was being wheeled out against Manchester United. The less said about the confused and confusing subs in that game, the better.

Against Lincoln City last night, Chelsea once again went with a strong team, and even then were only just able to battle past a spirited home team who really made the Blues fight for it. It hasn’t made Saturday’s game against Brighton look any easier.

The manager and his squad still have time to figure these things out, and the depth will improve as injured players return. But the decisions to replace the likes of Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke with less experienced players who are not ready to be Champions League starters already looks short sighted.

Will Faulks @willfaulks