Enzo Maresca has explained why Joao Felix was left on the bench while Noni Madueke was omitted from his squad for Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Fulham on Boxing Day.
Cole Palmer put Chelsea in front at Stamford Bridge with an excellent individual effort in the first half. However, Fulham were rewarded for their late surge with an equaliser through Harry Wilson before Rodrigo Muniz scored the winner for the visitors in the fifth minute of injury time.
Maresca has come under fire for making just one substitution during the game as Christopher Nkunku replaced Nicolas Jackson in the 73rd minute.
However, the Chelsea manager insists he did not want to make changes for the sake of it and is adamant that his attacking players, including Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto, were all performing well.
‘I tried to make changes since we started, when we see the ones who are playing that are not doing enough,’ Maresca said after his side’s defeat.
‘But even tonight even if you have to make a change just because you want to change, but I think tonight the ones who were playing they were doing very good.
‘Even Nico [Jackson], but probably because he was sprinting a lot, he was a bit tired so we decided to change.
‘But the rest I think Pedro [Neto] until the last minutes was doing well, Jadon was doing well, Cole was doing well, Moi [Caicedo] and Enzo [Fernandez] both very good, so change for change I don’t think is worth it.’
Asked specifically why Marc Guiu and Joao Felix were not given minutes against Fulham, Maresca said both players face tough competition for one position on the pitch.
‘The reason why is I just said, the reason why is because if you decide to put Marc Guiu we have to change the one that is there and we decided to change Nico for Christo [Nkunku],’ Maresca said.
‘And then for Joao I said Joao more or less has the same position as Cole, in some games they already played together but then it’s a matter of balance, this is the season why.’
Speaking on his decision to leave Madueke out of his squad entirely, Maresca said it was a ‘technical decision’.
The defeat has left Chelsea second in the Premier League table, four points behind leaders Liverpool.
Chelsea’s next match is away to Ipswich Town on December 30.
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