Journalist Ben Jacobs is very well connected at Chelsea, and we always pay attention when he makes claims about what’s going on at the club.
Yesterday he went on our writer Simon Phillips’ podcast where he spoke about our plans for new signing Tosin Adarabioyo, the central defender who joined us from Fulham on a free transfer. We had to beat a few other interested parties to secure his signature, and according to Jacobs part of our proposal was a promise of serious game time for the defender:
“He [Adarabioyo] certainly been promised enough game time to pick Chelsea over Newcastle United or a late hijack from Manchester United,” the writer answered when asked about who the first choice central defenders were likely to be this season.
Formation is set already
Of course one way to guarantee Adarabioyo and the rest of the central defenders a whole load more game time between them would be to play a back four. But according to Jacobs, that’s just not on the table.
“It’s not going to be a back three, it’s going to be a back four under Maresca,” he confidently assured listeners.
We can well believe that. We’re sure there will be some flexibility, but given the new man has a very specific system and style of play, it seems likely he commits pretty had to a basic formation early on and drills the players heavily in that before he starts branching out too much.
In any case, we will find out more on both fronts in just a couple of weeks when we start our preseason campaign against Wrexham. That will not be a complete squad of course, but we will start to get a basic outline of what the new coach is planning for the season ahead.
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