International weeks at Cobham are always going to be a little odd.
So many of the players are away with their country, and the rag tag bunch left behind are always a funny mixture of veterans, kids and squad players. It’s always tricky for a manager to get much work done when 80% of his squad is away, and that must be particularly painful for Maresca given the task coming up this weekend.
Chelsea play Liverpool at Anfield, one of the toughest games of the season and the trickiest away game under Maresca so far. But there’s only so much the new coach can do to prepare his team, given most of them are scattered all over the world.
Maresca’s international break priorities
Football London have just published a list of things they think will be his priorities: “keep those on the periphery of the team sharp” jumps out at us because it’s about the only thing that Maresca can do with those players at his disposal.
“Check on fitness of those returning players” is an obvious one – the issue here is that the players most likely in need of a rest will be Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez because they’re playing their internationals over the Atlantic. But that also means they’re the last to return home, and Maresca has the least time to assess them.
Two things the coach can comfortably do from this list even without his whole squad available are “decide on Fofana and Cucurella replacements” and “devise Liverpool plan.”
We’re not quite sure what his plan will be, but given this is a slow week, we’d imagine it will be something really occupying the Italian tactician’s mind. As for Fofana and Cucurella replacements – the fact that we have a B team should really benefit him here. Renato Veiga and Tosin Adarabioyo are fit, in form and up to speed, and should be able to slot in seamlessly.
