The one main takeaway from Enzo Maresca that I have noticed so far is that he is trying his very best to use a regular ‘best Xl’ at Chelsea.
Obviously this has been difficult for previous Chelsea managers to do because we have battled with SO many injuries lately. But Maresca has the absolute luxury and what many of us thought we would never see again, a fully fit squad! Again, props to the club, coaches, and medics for getting on top of this, it deserves huge praise, whatever they have done to get there.
Even with injuries though that will still happen and are unavoidable, Maresca is going to be using his ‘best Xl’ but with fill ins. So his best Xl right now is becoming pretty clear.
When everyone is fit, right now, it’s this:
Sanchez, James, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Lavia, Palmer; Sancho, Madueke, Jackson.
This doesn’t mean that others cannot challenge and then get in the team ahead of some of these names, and as I’ve said, we have a few knocking very hard on the door right now.
But by picking Lavia over Enzo Fernandez in the joint biggest game of our season so far on Sunday, was very telling. This was the one key decision that I spoke about some weeks back saying I was intrigued to see what he would go with. And he went with Lavia.
So does this mean that Maresca has made his biggest and most crucial squad selection so far? I believe it does.
Lavia and Fernandez I feel will rotate more than most though, due to Lavia’s injuries of late. But I believe this now points to the fact that Maresca sees Lavia over Fernandez if he was to pick his ‘best’ Chelsea 11.
I don’t think many would disagree with this selection either. But what does that mean for Enzo, who the club invested over £100m to sign? It’s a big question mark behind that now.
I love our midfield, but I still think it lacks some steel as I’ve previously spoken on, and also perhaps creativity if Fernandez is not going to be starting as much. Lavia and Caicedo offer more control and stability in deeper areas and playing out from the goalkeeper. But in those advanced areas, there is a massive onus purely on Cole Palmer to be the creator and of course, he is not always going to be able to turn up every single game (more on that in another article today).
I rate Caicedo and Lavia higher than Fernandez, but I also do still rate Fernandez. I do wonder though, whether what our man Jai has been saying on our SPTC Podcasts recently holds weight and that actually, Fernandez is just not going to be a Premier League player and would suit somewhere like La Liga much better. I do rate him though and always have done so I’m not writing him off in the slightest. He just doesn’t start in our best Xl right now, and I agree with Maresca on that one.