Academy defenders and direct wingers: the team Maresca must pick against Fulham to save Chelsea’s season | OneFootball

We were pretty frustrated by Enzo Maresca’s team selection for Thursday night’s game, we’ve already made that clear.

He picked several first team players who we would rather have seen rested ahead of tomorrow’s game – and then proceeded to lose at home in embarrassing fashion anyway.

But let’s move past that – who do we want to see play on Sunday?

In goal you’ve got to go with Robert Sanchez. It’s a damning indictment of this squad that he’s the best option we have in goal.

Ahead of him, we’d have Reece James at right back, but Maresca’s infuriating decision to use him in midweek rules him out from this vital Fulham game. So it will have to be Malo Gusto at right back. Josh Acheampong is surely pushing him close though.

In the middle, Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah have to play together – and hopefully will, given they weren’t starting on Thursday. Marc Cucurella will start at left back, despite getting a totally unnecessary start against Legia.

In midfield we hope that the return of Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez brings some stability to the team – although they weren’t able to best Ipswich’s midfield a week ago, let’s not forget.

In attack, Cole Palmer plays off Nicolas Jackson, with both desperate to end their scoring drought. Out wide, Noni Madueke and Pedro Neto should get the nod, despite Jadon Sancho’s improving form.

Chelsea face utter collapse with bad result at Craven Cottage

Enzo Maresca on the touchline. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

On a good day, that team has enough firepower to beat anyone. But when your last two games are draws with Ipswich and Brentford, it’s hard to predict anything too positive against a really solid Fulham team who have already beaten us once this season.

It’s not impossible we lose this game – and we dread to think how the mood will be after that.