Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has been explaining why he decided to pick Malo Gusto, a right back, over Ben Chilwell at left back in the defeat to Manchester City last night.
Gusto started the game as an out and out left full back and was not even inverting as Maresca experimented a different starting setup for this game than what he has been playing so far in pre-season.
This saw Gusto as a very high and wide left wing-back actually even rather than a full back. Wing-back is a position that Chilwell really does thrive in because he is an attacking threat. But Maresca went with Gusto.,
Chelsea lost the game 4-2 in the end through some really poor mistakes and devastating finesse from City.
Maresca explains why he used Gusto over Chilwell
The Blues head coach was asked after the game why he picked Gusto over Chilwell at left wing-back, and he replied:
“The reason why is because in this moment I need to see things. On the ball, Kiernan was in the position he used to play, as the left attacking midfielder. So we attacked a little bit more with Malo. But as I said, in this moment there are things I need to see for the rest of the season.”
So basically it sounds like he thought that Dewsbury-Hall offered the left sided attacking threat so didn’t need another one in Chilwell, and Gusto being right-footed offered something different? That’s what I’ve got from the response anyway!
