“Is available” – Enzo Maresa drops team news for Barrow and says ‘fringe players’ will play | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca is currently just doing his pre-match press conference for the League Cup tie against Barrow tomorrow evening.

The Blues play the League Two side at home tomorrow night, but it will bring a new type of challenge for Maresca and his players.

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Barrow are currently top of League Two and will certainly be arriving at Stamford Bridge tomorrow night with a lot of hope and they will be well up for this. It will be the biggest game that most of their players will ever play, so expect them to be leaving everything out there tomorrow night.

Maresca will be going for it, but he has said that there will be chances for some fringe players. He has also updated on the fitness and readiness for both Romeo Lavia and Malo Gusto.

Gusto available

Gusto is back!

Maresca says:

“It would be a chance to give them [fringe players] some minutes. It’s the same way we have done in the Conference League. Hopefully it can be a good chance for them to show a little bit of themselves.”

He was also asked about Lavia and Gusto, and responded:

“Malo is available for tomorrow. Romeo is not. Hopefully he can be available for Brighton.”

But make no mistake, Maresca is taking this game and this competition very seriously, so I’d be surprised if there are too many academy additions tomorrow:

“It’s dangerous because football is full of these [supposed] ‘easy’ games. In this moment, it’s the worst game for us. We need to take it seriously. We can’t allow ourselves to drop.”

There’s a strong hint too that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is going to start the game tomorrow:

“Probably [he will start]. We have a session today. I like to tell the players [before you]. I’m very happy with him. We need to understand Kiernan was the main player at Leicester, he’s not here. For any player, you need to adapt.”

And on some of the fringe players who might be in, there was a specific question:

“They [the likes of Chilwell, Chukwuemeka, George and Acheampong] are going to be the ones who will be in the squad [vs Barrow]. Some we will see if they start, but if not they will all be on the bench and hopefully we can give them some [minutes].”

Full press conference on YouTube.