Malo Gusto believes people don’t understand it’s important to have a lot of quality players and claimed It’s good to be able to make changes because otherwise “we will die.”
A lot was made of Chelsea’s squad size over the summer and that’s continued to be the case over the course of the season, with many questions asked about supposed “A” and “B” teams.
Football in the modern day is very much a squad game given the amount of fixtures there are now and the fact a lot of top teams are competing on multiple fronts, although it doesn’t come without it’s issues.
Gusto backs Chelsea over their squad size
So far it’s not been a huge problem for Maresca because he’s been able to field two different teams in the cup competitions compared to the Premier League.
He’s played down there being a first and second team as such, but it’s quite clear from the evidence that very much appears to be the case.
Whilst the Blues are still in the cup competitions and in the early stages it’s not a problem, but Chelsea are already out of the Carabao Cup, which is now less games for the “B” team.
What happens when the Blues advance to the later rounds of the Conference League remains to be seen and projecting ahead to the Champions League if Chelsea are in it next season, Maresca won’t have the luxury of making 11 changes for those games.
There have already been some signs of frustration and Joao Felix ripped off his sock ties when it became clear he wouldn’t be coming on against Arsenal, whilst Christopher Nkunku is believed to be considering his future.
However, Gusto has hit back and believes people don’t understand it’s important to have a lot of quality players in the squad.
“The people don’t understand that it is very important to have a lot of players with qualities,” he said in quotes picked up by The Guardian.
“We play Conference League and a few cups. It’s good to have a lot of players to make changes because otherwise we will die. It is good for the group. We just try to stay all together to create something between us and to win everything.”
