Enzo Maresca Chelsea Tinkering Comes Back to Bite Title Hopefuls

Enzo Maresca has earned a bit of a reputation for being the tinkerman at Chelsea this season.

The Blues have made sure to make good use of their full squad and Maresca has benefited from that as his side are in the midst of a title run early doors.

Chelsea have been within touching distance of Arsenal up until their most recent outings and Maresca has his players dreaming about what could be if they can put together a run of results similar to their efforts until now.

They did, however, falter on Wednesday evening away from home at struggling Leeds United where manager Daniel Farke is fearing for his job. The German had come under fire with the Whites sitting within the relegation zone before they improved to smash Chelsea 3-1 at Elland Road.

It was an evening when goals from Jaka Bijol, Ao Tanaka and Dominic Calvert-Lewin cancelled out a Pedro Neto strike to secure a valuable three points for Leeds while also simultaneously costing the Stamford Bridge outfit what would have been an equally massive victory for their Premier League ambitions.

Enzo Maresca Chelsea tinkering costs Blues vs Leeds

But who is to blame for Chelsea’s latest result? Coach Maresca, 45, definitely has to take some of the criticism and bear the brunt of the fan ire that will come his way. And that is because he made a handful of changes to yet another starting XI which laughs in the face of a consistent lineup.

It was a result and issue with the chopping and changing which recently mirrored Manchester City after Pep Guardiola made too many changes vs Bayer Leverkusen.

The Spaniard has a similarly large squad as Maresca does, but it leads to temptation as both bosses have now discovered.

FootballBlog looks closer at Maresca’s tinkering as well as the last three starting squads he has picked to try and identify why it may be costing the club points.

Chelsea changes in past three matches

Maresca, as frustrated fans now know, is not afraid to change his team and tweak his lineup and system at times.

It has left punters questioning the need to break up a consistent starting XI which can often bring about a more settled squad. Especially in defence where a calming back four is often required and up front where a partnership can make or break any given match.

Take Chelsea’s last three matches in particular. They defeated Barcelona in the Champions League in what was a convincing 3-0 victory even after Maresca made seven changes from the team which saw off Burnley 2-0 in the league before that.

In the next outing against Arsenal, there were significantly fewer swaps made by the coach and it paid off as they held the league leaders to a 1-1 draw to stay second in the league and within touching distance of Mikel Arteta’s pace setters.

However, defeat to Leeds came thanks to Tinkerman making as many as five changes to his side the following fixture in terms of personnel but there were also tickles to who played where with Joao Pedro taking a deeper role as a No.10 to accommodate Liam Delap up front. It didn’t work out.

Chelsea XI vs Leeds: Sanchez, Chalobah, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Cucurella, Santos, Fernandez, Estevao, Pedro, Gittens, Delap.

Chelsea XI vs Arsenal: Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella, James, Caicedo, Estevao, Fernandez, Neto, Pedro.

Chelsea XI vs Barcelona: Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella, James, Caicedo, Estevao, Fernandez, Garnacho, Neto.

Have Chelsea benefited from rotation under Maresca before?

Fixture congestion will always play a part and some would commend Maresca for making the number of changes he does because it helps with fitness levels throughout the season.

Last term the club were duking it out on four fronts including Premier League, Conference League and the two domestic cup competitions. In Europe especially, the Blues were able to make good use of their fringe players against lower level opponents on the continent and they still went on to win the tournament.

He was able to prioritise the league campaign with his full strength for the most part and that allowed the club to finish in a top four spot which earned them a Champions League berth again this season.

Injuries are also unavoidable during what is a long season and it is important to be able to manage certain players’ workloads which has been key at times for Chelsea.

What Maresca has said about Chelsea squad rotation

Maresca has always defended his decision to rotate his squad despite some poor results. The team could only manage a 2-2 draw with Qarabag earlier this season and that brought with it criticism.

But the gaffer said at the time: “When we make changes the intention is always because we think the plan with the players that start the game is the correct one,” he told reporters.

“I don’t have the feeling that tonight’s result is about rotating players. We started well, scored the goal, and then conceded two goals that we could avoid. For me the big difference was inside the box — especially inside our box.”

After he was questioned again, this time by Wayne Rooney, Maresca dismissed the moans and stood firm.

“It is my view to rotate players. No one complains when you don’t win games; no one disagrees.

“When the rotation is Andrey Santos, Brazil international, Jorrel Hato, Netherlands international, Estevao, Brazil international – it’s not about rotation. They are good, they are talented, they are young and when they are young, you have to give them the chances to make some mistakes to be better. The same happened in the past with Josh Acheampong.

“But I understand that when you don’t win games, the problem is the rotation, or different things.”