Enzo Maresca’s likely 5 changes for Flamengo after “need to rotate” comments | OneFootball

Chelsea face Flamengo tonight in the Club World Cup’s Matchday 2, and Enzo Maresca took his pre-match press conference last night where he was asked a little about what team he was going to pick.

Everyone was pretty surprised by how strong his lineup was the for the first game, and it sounds like he’s going to make quite a few changes for this second game which comes just a few days later.

WATCH Chelsea vs. Flamengo for free on any device with DAZN.

Maresca to change half his team for Flamengo clash

Chelsea players pose for their team photo at the Club World Cup (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

“[We have] no injuries at the moment, but because it’s a tournament and we have a game every three days, we need to rotate players,” the Chelsea coach explained.

“I’m not saying we’re going to rotate ten or eleven players each game, but we will need to rotate three, four or five players each game for sure. This is because we cannot play every three days with the same players.

“The ones we tried to rotate a little bit in the first game are the ones we have tried to rotate since day one: Romeo (Lavia) and Reece (James). We also gave some minutes off to Moi, who has played the whole season, by bringing on Dario Essugo. We will try to continue on that.”

Enzo Maresca’s likely 5 changes

Certainly it feels like a no brainer that Malo Gusto will start over James and then Andrey Santos or Dario Essugo over Lavia. Enzo Fernandez will possibly also come in for Moises Caicedo.

Up front most people are expecting Liam Delap to start his first game for the Blues. There aren’t so many options to play with out wide, with Pedro Neto and Noni Madueke possibly starting for a second game in a row with limited alternatives available. We could yet see Nicolas Jackson or Christopher Nkunku playing wide – highlighting the need to buy another attacker this summer.