Maresca’s versatile favourite talks about his “great relationship” with teammate

Enzo Maresca has kept a very consistent team since arriving at Chelsea in the summer.

Or rather, it would be more fair to say he’s kept TWO very consistent teams – one in the Premier League, and one in the cups. A couple of players have been able to break through from one to the other, but in the main the Premier League lineup has remained the same since the opening weekend.

One thing Maresca has changed a lot, however, is his use of the players in that system – in particular the full backs. Malo Gusto has been in the team all year, but has played right back, left back, and in possession as a sort of inverted number 10.

Since the last international break, we’ve seen captain Reece James come into the team – but even that just indicated that Gusto would be changing sides not leaving the team. Last weekend it was James who dropped out of the team to accommodate Marc Cucurella coming in, not Gusto.

Gusto on his relationship with captain James

Speaking to the Chelsea official website, Gusto pointed out that it has more often than not been him AND his captain playing, not one or the other:

“Reece and I have a great relationship between us. As you’ve seen in the last few games, we have both played. So it’s not like it’s either him or me [that starts]. We try to push ourselves, do our best and help the team as much as we can,” Gusto said.

“We have a lot of quality and it’s good for the team. We are playing Conference League in the week so it’s good to change and have two great teams. It’s good for Chelsea to have this type of quality.”

Gusto and James need to keep building that great relationship on the field – it looks like it’s here to stay.