Just a couple of weeks ago, Enzo Maresca was answering very difficult questions about an ownership civil war and the bomb squad left to him by the sporting directors. It’s amazing how quickly things change.
Now he’s being asked questions from the total opposite end of the spectrum – Enzo, your team is doing so well, how are you going to cope?
The good form shown in the last couple of games has certainly made his life a little more tricky in terms of team selection. How do you tell Christopher Nkunku, scorer of a hattrick this week, that he’s not in the team this weekend? Well, according to Maresca, players understand that the needs of the team come first:
“I’ll be honest. I’ll be honest with him and with all of them. I’ve said to them since day one we cannot play with seven or eight attacking players otherwise there is no defensive balance,” the coach explained in his presser today.
“[Nicolas Jackson] is playing in the Premier League and scored two goals [vs West Ham] and Christo played the other day and scored three. This is good because not one of them can drop, that means the other one has more chances; thinking and knowing that it is impossible for them to be at the same level all season. But it is important they compete with each other.”
Strikers set for fascinating season long battle
We still think at some point Nkunku will have to be tried out in the first team – it’s just a question of which player already in there sees their form drop off. Maresca’s right in that while it’s hard to leave out Nkunku, it would be even harder to leave out Jackson, who has been scoring in the Premier League.
Eventually we’re sure the two of them will start together, and when and how that happens is one of the interesting tactical questions of the season ahead.
