Chelsea put in a truly dreadful first half showing against Copenhagen tonight – almost matching their dire effort from last week.
They managed 0 shots of any kind, and changes at the break were inevitable. Enzo Maresca elected to remove Enzo Fernandez to keep him rested for this weekend, replacing him with Cole Palmer. But his other change was to take off youngster Josh Acheampong, who was playing at left back, and replace him with Marc Cucurella.
Lucy Ward, on co-commentary for TNT Sports, didn’t like that decision at all, mirroring the thoughts of many Chelsea fans who hate the way their coach is so quick to take off the youngest players whenever things aren’t going right, regardless of whether their performance merits it.
“I tell you what I’m really not comfortable with: taking a young player off at half time in both legs who hasn’t even been the worst player in that particular unit. It’s too easy to do that, far too easy as a manager.”
She’s referring back to her thoughts from the first leg where a very similar situation occurred. After 45 minutes very isolated up top, Maresca took off 17 year old Shim Mheuka who was making his debut,
“I’m still a bit disappointed about Mheuka coming off. The message that it sends. He really couldn’t have done much more,” Ward said at the time.
Acheampong sub even less merited
Today was even more egregious – not only was Acheampong not bad, he was actively one of the better players in that first half. We understand why Maresca does it – it’s the low risk option. But it’s a little cowardly, as many fans have pointed out.
As Ward says, it doesn’t send a good message to anyone, and will be a difficult moment for some of these young players trying to earn their chance.
Take Maresca off! He’s useless.
Maresca has been the best Chelsea manager in the past 2 years.
Maresca is the best Chelsea Manager in the past 2 years.
I totally side with the gaffer on replacing Josh Acheampong. Although he didn’t play badly, but he had to be covered by Enzo several times. Josh was slow in recovery and didn’t press very well. Tonight, his game didn’t have enough energy. Masreca was right and accusing him of cowardice is unfair. His job is to build a team and not to baby sit.
Agreed. SuperFrank is a windbag. He would have absolutely pilloried Maresca had he stayed with players like Acheampong and gone on to lose the tie with so many starters on the bench. Seems like Chelsea News becomes less and less about actual news with each passing week and more and more about SuperFrank delivering his tedious opinions. It’s why I read Chelsea News a lot less than I used to, especially when The Athletic’s reporters offer a much higher grade of journalism on the club.
It’s his job on the line at the end of the day, do he can do whatever he thinks is needed; who really cares what a crap commentator thinks anyway?
The worst thing that has happened Chelsea since the loss of Abramovich….is the selling of Gallagher ! The reason is Gallagher played well with Palmer….he was a true Blue at Chelsea & the two of them 2gether could get Chelsea the points needed especially when the chips were down . eg. like Chelsea v Man u score 5-4….they were like the way Lampart & Terry could change a game ! Also if Todd Boely had gone all out to sign Kane ( look at his record at Bayern ) instead of all those youngsters….we would be challenging for everything ….can’t see us even getting top 4 ! Just look at the fixtures left & Man City & Forest….Will pip us ! This is TOD….a true Blue since the 60s