By collaborating within the Membership World Cup, Chelsea have needed to, in impact, sacrifice a big a part of the upcoming preseason. Nevertheless, regardless of the insistence that we’re taking this competitors as significantly as doable, it will seem that we’re not averse to do a little bit of experimenting on the similar time, to assist fill that hole in preparations for subsequent season.
Alas, final night time’s experiment backfired fairly emphatically in at all times sunny Philadelphia. We haven’t seen such a momentous collapse from the workforce in a while, going from a sport that was solidly in-hand and below management, to conceding twice within the span of six minutes in almost an identical methods. Nicolas Jackson’s second ridiculous purple card in his final 4 appearances then successfully ended the match, regardless of loads of time left on the clock.
Maresca didn’t elaborate on what the precise nature of his experiment could have been, however we had Reece James enjoying in a three-man midfield alongside Moisés Caicedo and Enzo Fernández, whereas Cole Palmer was again on the proper flank the place he had a lot success final season. That’s actually not a foul concept on paper; in observe, the execution was missing drastically nevertheless. Experiments can fail in many alternative methods.
“[Those were] six minutes that utterly modified the dynamic of the sport. I believe, till their first purpose, we had began the second half a lot better, however then two objectives in two minutes and the purple card modified the dynamic of the sport.”
“Within the final two days, we tried one thing utterly totally different. We performed in a distinct construction right this moment to organize for subsequent season and have extra choices. The plan was fairly good for an hour, however then we conceded the purpose, and the second, after which we had the purple card. In the long run, with us down to 10 males, they deserved to win the sport.”
-Enzo Maresca; supply: Chelsea FC
On the finish of the day, this defeat gained’t stop us from reaching the knockout rounds of this competitors — we do need to no less than draw in opposition to ES Tunis on Tuesday — although it’ll probably give us a more durable (first) matchup in Bayern Munich slightly than Benfica or Boca Juniors. It was by no means going to be simple both means.
However hopefully we’ve discovered some classes that wanted to be discovered.
