Why one Maresca sub decision has split Chelsea fans who see team miss huge cup opportunity

Now that the dust has settled on last night’s game, a very clear divide has emerged among Chelsea fans.

It was a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle in the end, and there’s no real shame in that scoreline given it was at St James’ Park, and we started the game having made XI changes.

But while most fans are happy to let manager Enzo Maresca field an entirely different team in these cup games, there was some discontent that he didn’t even change things up much with the team behind. With 5 subs to use, Maresca elected to bring on just 1 first team attacker to try and change things up.

Notably Cole Palmer was in the squad, travelled all the way to the North East, then sat on the bench even as his team went 2 goals down and then lost.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of it was Maresca’s answer in the press conference when asked about his decision to leave the likes of Palmer on the bench. The coach claimed that Christopher Nkunku and fellow attacker Joao Felix were doing well, so there was no need to change them.

Maresca’s payoff for rest will come later in the season – but now no chance for Palmer and co. to lift EFL Cup

The foundations of this season are being built on careful load management and spreading the minutes around the squad. We appreciate that, and hope it ends up paying off later on in the campaign. But not giving Palmer or Jackson even 20 minutes to do their thing, and even just to reward the fans who made the long trip, is a pity.

Now out of the EFL Cup, the number of games left on the schedule for the season has just dropped.