Whenever it feels like Chelsea are starting to build some momentum, they find a way to derail it completely. Whether it be the defeat at home to Sunderland despite going up inside five minutes, or the recent draw away to Qarabag. It simply does not look like this team is capable of maintaining any kind of form. And it might be down to Enzo Maresca.
You see, the team seems to be struggling for form because the same one is not playing twice in a row. Maresca is heavily rotating his starting XI from one game to another.
That disrupts the continuity. The combinations are not as tight as they should be, because they rarely get to play together at a competitive level. Winning is a habit. And it must be hard to build when you win one day, and are on the bench the next.
Wayne Rooney also appears to believe that the players won't be happy with how Maresca has handled the selection. As reported by The Chelsea Chronicle, the Manchester United and England legend said:
"That’s part of the problem with signing so many players. They’ve got so many good players. You’re trying to get them game time.
“And I’m sure, you know, he will have went into that game thinking the changes he’s made, Chelsea still should win the game. But when I spoke about City having momentum, you can’t get momentum with that like that.
“As players, you want to play, you want to play games and you want to build relationships and as a centre-back pair and as forwards, as midfielders, you build that relationship and when you keep chopping and changing, the players won’t be happy 100%.
“Players who were getting bits of game time and maybe might expect it will be happy, but you want to play, you want to, you know, get on a running of winning games and playing consistently."
Wayne Rooney claims Chelsea players won't like Enzo Maresca's decision
It certainly does make sense, especially coming from someone who played in both a winning environment and not one over the course of his career. It is important for a manager to have a settled team.
The Champions League cannot be treated as a cup competition. That is simply it. You need to play your best players on that day. Chelsea did not do that against Qarabag and paid the price for it. They were outplayed by the Azerbaijani side for most of the first half.
Of course, one cannot overlook that Chelsea have plenty of injury problems and won't want to make that situation worse by playing people too frequently. But then, there needs to be a balance. Change two or three players at a time, not pretty much the entire team and setup.
One can only hope that this is something that Maresca plays more attention to, as his side are showing no signs of improving. The aim for Chelsea this season should have been to compete for the Premier League. Instead, it looks like they will struggle to make the top four.