Chelsea’s shiny new squad has a full A team and a full B team, and manager Enzo Maresca is regularly rotating ten or eleven players between games in the league and games in the cups.
It’s a way of doing things that keeps everyone fresh for the weekend – but there are certainly the first rumblings that some players stuck in the B team are starting to get frustrated. Christopher Nkunku can’t break into the first string but is too good to spend a season on the bench, while others are in a similar situation, seeing their path to the first team blocked.
One person who is a fan, perhaps because his position has proved to be more fluid between the two sides than some others, is Marc Cucurella. He was a Maresca favourite for the first couple of months of the season, then lost his place for 3 games in a row, before being restored for the match against Arsenal at the weekend.
Cucurella gives feeling from the squad on Maresca’s squad changes
So how did the Spaniard feel about his restoration, and about the concept in general? Very positively, if you believe his words from the Chelsea official website:
“I’m very happy. I try to help the team, put everything on the pitch and then see. This was an important game for us, for our fans. We tried to do our best and we have a top team,” Cucurella said.
“We have a big squad with top players, so one day you need to play the game, and other times you need to rest and stay on the bench. I try to do my best as always and then the manager will decide.
“The most important thing is the team. We want to win and everyone wants to do his job, so we try to help the team. We would all prefer the three points to Man of the Match. It’s part of the game. We just need to keep going and believe in ourselves.”
