ESPN journalist Gabriele Marcotti has revealed who he thinks Chelsea’s four most technically gifted players are before claiming only one of them starts in Enzo Maresca’s best eleven.
The Blues have heavily invested over the last few windows, including breaking the British transfer record twice on midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo as they have completely overhauled their squad.
Chelsea have been heavily criticised for their performances on the pitch over the last couple of seasons and their transfer policy, but despite everything the squad is packed with talent and multiple different options.
Marcotti names Chelsea’s most technical players
An example of Chelsea’s squad depth was on display in Saturday’s win against Bournemouth with Maresca able to throw on Jadon Sancho, Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix in the second half, with Sancho and Nkunku combining for the winner.
Chelsea have got an array of attacking players to choose from with brilliant technical ability and it’s unclear what Maresca feels is his best lineup.
Marcotti has named who he believes are the four most technically gifted players at the club, before highlighting that he feels only one starts in Maresca’s best lineup.
“Chelsea’s four most technically gifted players, just technical ability,” he told ESPN.
“Whatever order you want to put them in. Cole Palmer, Joao Felix, Christopher Nkunku and Jadon Sancho, for me.
“Of those four, only one of them starts. That’s another weird team building dysfunction.”
Out of the four listed it’s hard to argue against Palmer being the only that is a nailed on starter, but Chelsea are facing potentially the longest season in their history, so there’s likely to be plenty of opportunities for players to get minutes.
There’s no doubt Maresca’s facing a tough juggling act to keep everyone happy, with it both a blessing and a curse to have so many options available, but it feels like for the first time in a while the Blues have genuine game winning options from the bench and that can never be a bad thing.
How can Marcotti seriously call this out as “dysfunction” at this early date. Sancho has made only one appearance for goodness sake! With two Felix and Sancho only joining the team a few weeks ago I think Maresca can be more than forgiven for still trying figure out who is best XI are going to be. I generally like Marcotti, but I think he’s fallen too easily into the groupthink storyline on this one. Just because there has been some turmoil at Chelsea does not mean Maresca’s management is “dysfunctional!”