Maresca's Constant Lineup Shuffling Has Chelsea Spinning.
Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The Core Problem: A Predictable Inconsistency
Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.
Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.
“In my view tonight, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”
The Path Forward
To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.
“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the playoff and then go to the next round,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.
Other Notes
Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than tearing it up in the top flight.
Fan Correspondence
“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium that they were always going to. Just showing up 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – a correspondent.
“I see that one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of representation in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.
