Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca revealed that he suppressed Cole Palmer in the first half of their 2-1 defeat against Man Utd because he was not fully fit in the game.
The Italian was forced to make changes shortly after the start when Robert Sanchez was sent away for the pollution of Bryan Mbeumo while the attacker was wearing goal.
“Very difficult because after three or four minutes with the red card it completely changed the game,” he admitted to Sky Sports after the last whistle. “All the plan is in the trash.
Asked what he made of the red card of Sanchez, Maresca replied: “Nothing. It is a situation that we can avoid because we knew these kinds of long balls for (Benjamin) Sesko, they try to flick for (Bryan) Mbeumo. We knew that. Unfortunately we admitted that moment. When you are a player.”
Estevao Willian and Pedro Neto made way for goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen and defender Tosin Adarabioyo while Maresca looked to strengthen his defense.
It did not have the desired effect because Bruno Fernandes opened the score shortly thereafter on an extremely wet night in Old Trafford.
Maresca explained that he made the unusual movement of a double replacement to match the first five of United.
“They are used to attacking with five players, so at that moment we have to defend with five players. We can absolutely defend with four when we are 11 vs 11, but if we are one player, the idea was to defend with five.
Chelsea -Baas Maresca explains Cole Palmer Sub in Man Utd League
Palmer was then replaced by Andrey Santos in the 21st minute and set a new Premier League record for the fastest three substitutions in the history of the competition. The playmaker seemed to worsen a groin problem that he provided for the game.
It is therefore confusing why Maresca chose to take out Estevao instead of Palmer, given the fitness issues of the latter for the game.
“We decided to change with Estevao and Pedro Neto and the after we changed Cole because he made an attempt to play this game because he was not 100 percent fit,” he said.
“This morning he had a test and he was fine, but not 100 percent fit. So we decided to change after 20 minutes.”
Casemiro doubled United’s lead before being sent to the rest of peace. Trevoh Chalobah pulled one back in the 80th minute, but they could not find extra equipment in their vain search for an equalizer.
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