ENZO Maresca has hit back at John Terry after being criticised over his rotation of Chelsea’s star players.
Chelsea icon Terry, 44, claimed inexperience and rotation cost Maresca’s men away to Leeds, and that the manager should stick with the same starting XI.
In his rant, Terry, who still works with the Chelsea youth players at Cobham, said: “That’s what’s going to cost us at the end of it, we’re inexperienced and if you can’t go Leeds away and know what to expect.
“You need to go there and show the fight and match Leeds in every single way.”
He later added: “Maybe that’s an opportunity for the manager to look at the squad and go, ‘Rotation is not for me going forward, I know my best starting XI or 13, 14 players and I’m going to stick with that, and the players are just going to have to deal with it’.”
But the Chelsea boss clearly disagreed with the legendary defender.
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Enzo Maresca singles out experienced Chelsea flop after Leeds horror show
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In his press conference ahead of facing Bournemouth this weekend, Maresca was asked about JT’s critique of him online, responding: “We are in a process where we are trying to understand why we were not good enough against Leeds.
“I don’t know if the solution is to have 12 or 14 players, and the rest just play some minutes.
“We are trying to understand if you can play every two or three days with the same 11, I don’t know.”
“It’s the most difficult thing for me, personally, this season.”
Maresca understands that his rotation is costing Chelsea points, but knows that his players have physical limitations.
Captain Reece James, 25, and key defender Wesley Fofana, 24, both have to have their minutes managed because of their injury history, and are following long-term programmes, dictating how much they can play.
The problem Chelsea have, which their manager understands, is that the deputies to those players are not to the same standard.
He added, “In football, in life, in any job, there is a level. Andrey, unfortunately, is not Moi. Tosin is not Wes.
“They are different. If I say to you that Andrey is like Moi, you can understand for yourself that I am a liar.
“I would like to play Reece every game. He is already playing two games a week; he needs to aim for three.
“So he is already improving in that. But I also would like Moi not to be suspended and to use Wes every game.”
“You either have to match them or you go and take the sting out of it completely, and we certainly didn’t do that in the first half.”
Maresca singled out Tosin Adarabioyo more than anyone after his horror show performance against Leeds.
The Chelsea boss used him as an example of why his side does NOT need to buy experience in January, despite Terry’s protests.
It was the 28-year-old’s mistake that led to Leeds’ third goal, leading to fans claiming he should have his contract terminated.
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Maresca, in charge of the youngest team in the Premier League, said: “We always talk about experience when we drop points.
“When we beat Barcelona, when we drew against Arsenal, no one was mentioning experienced players.
“I understand that when we don’t win, we are always looking for the reason why, but the reason why we didn’t win against Leeds is not because of the experience; it’s because we were not good enough.
“We have experienced players, but they didn’t play.
“Who is the oldest one for us in the pitch? Who was? Tosin. Did he play good?”
The little noise in the Chelsea press room spoke volumes.
He continued: “It was a bad game for all of us.”
Maresca has, for what it’s worth, been heavily praised for his rotation policy and ability to keep star players such as Reece James in good physical condition for over a year now.
And despite some fan complaints about the deputies to the likes of James, Fofana and Caicedo, the board and sporting directors are fully behind their manager and his decisions.
Read the full article here