Maresca Exposes Chelsea's Fatal Mistake Against Leeds and Calls Out Veteran Star
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has confessed he "regrets" leaving teenage defender Josh Acheampong out of this week's disappointing loss to Leeds United.
The Blues dropped to fourth place in the Premier League standings, falling nine points behind table-toppers Arsenal, after the 3–1 setback at Elland Road.
For the journey to West Yorkshire, Maresca implemented five alterations from the squad that secured a draw against Arsenal the previous weekend—one change was mandatory due to Moisés Caicedo's suspension.
Acheampong, 19, hasn't featured in Premier League action since starting the loss to Sunderland on Oct. 25. He remained on the substitutes' bench against Leeds, but retrospective analysis led Maresca to believe he should have been restored to the first team.
"One of the regrets I have following the match is I didn't start with Josh," the manager stated.
He explained that the defensive selections were made with tactical reasoning: "The reason we went with Trev [Chalobah], Tosin and Benoît [Badiashile] is because after studying them, we noticed they frequently played direct passes for [Dominic] Calvert-Lewin, for [Lukas] Nmecha. So we favored physical presence to win headers. But despite that approach, we lost most of those battles."
Maresca Dismisses Suggestions Chelsea Lack Essential Experience
"It's not [about leadership]. I embrace having a youthful squad, I appreciate young talent and I'm pleased with the players at my disposal," Maresca replied when questioned about the reasons for the Leeds outcome.
Instead, the standard of the overall display is what caused Chelsea's downfall in the manager's view.
"I was genuinely shocked by the performance, without question, because I anticipated better across all areas," he clarified.
"But during our preparation, we examined every detail, we were conscious of the Arsenal match, playing with 10 men for an hour, making rotations to preserve players. We were prepared for certain phases, but not throughout the entire contest.
Maresca appeared to direct criticism toward centre-back Tosin, one of the senior and more seasoned players in the team at 28 years old. The former Manchester City player has faced scrutiny multiple times this campaign and delivered another underwhelming display against Leeds.
Experience, evidently, isn't the complete solution.
"We consistently discuss experience when we lose points. When we defeated Barcelona, drew with Arsenal, nobody mentioned veteran players," Maresca emphasized.
"I recognize that when we don't secure victory, we constantly search for explanations, but I believe the reason we didn't beat Leeds isn't due to experience, it's because our performance wasn't adequate.
"We possess seasoned players. Regrettably, they weren't available. [Moisés Caicedo] due to suspension, [Reece James] through injury. So, it's because at that time, those with greater experience were unavailable. Who was our most senior player on the field? Tosin. Did he perform well? Therefore, it's not about experience. It's about those 11 players not meeting the required standard.
"I understand we constantly seek experience, but it was simply a poor performance from all of us."