“It’s not random” – Maresca blames one factor for Chelsea’s spiralling fitness crisis | OneFootball

There are two separate but linked issues at Chelsea at the moment – injuries and fatigue.

Injuries are meaning that Enzo Maresca has limited options, and has to overuse his starters. Those starters, having been overused, start to pick up injuries. Right now, it feels like the issues are spiralling.

The manager’s rotations are coming in for serious criticism too – he’s in a tricky situation, but isn’t coming out of it particular well. Asked about whether tiredness had played a role on Saturday, the Italian coach pointed to the red card as a bigger factor.

Maresca hits back against fatigue claims

Robert Sanchez trudges off. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

“When we were 10 against 10, we had almost 70% possession,” Maresca said.

“When we were 11 against 10, probably we had 20%. I hopefully we don’t have any more games with 10 players after three or four minutes because it’s difficult for us but it’s difficult for any club in the world to play 100 minutes with 10 players.”

Injuries tie manager’s hand

On the injury front, he did admit that his hands were being tied by the absences, especially in midfield:

“It is a situation that we need to manage because if we have Moises Caiceedo with a small problem, and for instance Romeo [Lavia] is fit, we could decide [to use him], or Dario Essugo was fit, we could decide to give Moi some rest,” Maresca said.

The coach wasn’t afraid to point the blame at the Club World Cup, either:

“But in this moment, Dario is injured, Romeo is injured, and again, we are in a new situation for us because of the Club World Cup, so we don’t know how will be this season in terms of injury. I don’t think it is random, the amount of injuries we have, and we need to try to learn and try to manage the situation.”