Cole Palmer stayed on the bench against Newcastle (Image: Getty Images)
The England star Cole Palmer was not deployed as a substitute in Chelsea’s Carabao Cup loss to Newcastle, but manager Enzo Maresca has given an explanation for his choice.
Despite his team’s lackluster performance against Newcastle, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said he didn’t need to put on Cole Palmer because of the Blues’ attackers’ play.
Mauricio Pochettino, Maresca’s predecessor, guided Chelsea to the Carabao Cup final the previous season before losing to Liverpool at Wembley. However, the London team’s 2-0 loss to Newcastle United on Wednesday means there won’t be a repeat this season.
Alexander Isak opened the score before halftime, and Newcastle doubled their lead with an own goal from Axel Disasi. Despite creating numerous opportunities and finishing the game with 17 shots, Chelsea was unable to get past Nick Pope in the home goal.
Maresca was questioned about why he didn’t bring Palmer, who scored seven goals, off the bench after the game. After being impressed by Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku, he replied that he didn’t want to remove one of them.
“[It was] imply because I think Joao and Christo were doing very good,” Maresca stated. Joao and Christo were doing well, so there was no need to change, but [Palmer] had traveled in case we needed Cole.
“If we examine the outcome, it was unsuccessful. However, I believe we controlled the game for 22 or 23 minutes, until their goal, and we didn’t give up anything,” the Italian continued. “But then after the goal, we lost the control for 10 minutes and then conceded the second one.”
Maresca reaffirmed his happiness with his team’s performance, claiming Chelsea had the game under control in the second half. “The most important thing, as we always say, is the result but the performance, we lost the game because of 10 minutes after the first goal and then for the rest, we were quite good,” he stated.
In the middle of the week, Maresca wasn’t the only manager to bench one of his best players. Even as his Manchester City squad was eliminated by Tottenham, manager Pep Guardiola defended his choice and refused to look to Erling Haaland.
Guardiola stated, “The plan was not to play [Haaland] today,” after Savinho and Manuel Akanji were added to City’s mounting list of injured players. “We have not had much recovery and it was a waste of energy.”
Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish have “no chance” of playing in City’s upcoming match, according to the Catalan manager. According to him, there were just 13 senior players available for the team, and Oscar Bobb and Rodri were among the longer-term absences.
With a thin roster, City will play Bournemouth on Saturday in an attempt to stay undefeated in the league. Maresca’s Chelsea will play again the following day against Manchester United, who defeated Leicester in the cup on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals and face Spurs in North London.
