“We need to rotate…” – Enzo Maresca responds to questions after he picks full strength team | OneFootball

We all expected Chelsea to pick a relatively strong team for tonight’s game against LAFC in the Club World Cup, but even then, the fact that Enzo Maresca picked a full first XI was a little surprising.

The only concession to rest was Enzo Fernandez missing out. The rest of the team is what the coach would have picked were this a Premier League game or a Champions League final.

Enzo Maresca explains logic to his full power XI

Enzo Maresca taking preseason training for Chelsea. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

Speaking ahead of kick off, the Chelsea boss explained his thinking in more detail:

“First of all, it’s a tournament and we have three games in less than ten days. So we need to rotate for sure. Liam [Delap] is not starting today, Nico [Jackson] is starting. The next game we will see, but for sure we will rotate players,” the coach assured fans.

“We have to go game by game. You cannot play the final if you don’t win games. You cannot win the semi-final if you don’t win games. So we have to start today, try to win games, and then we will take it step by step…”

Maresca plans A team and B team concept revival

To us, that sounds a lot like an admission we will see an almost entirely changed XI for the game against Flamengo on Friday. Then a return to something like this for the third group stage game against ES Tunis.

He’s all but promising Liam Delap a start in the next game, and surely Moises Caicedo will take a rest too.

This is a clear indicator of what’s to come though – if we make it to the knockout stages, expect full strength teams all the way, with lots of money and a fair bit of prestige on the line.