Maresca makes his opinion clear on youngster he subbed at half time

We were really frustrated by one Enzo Maresca decision last night – taking off Josh Acheampong at half time.

It reminded us of the first leg last week, where it felt debutant Shim Mheuka was the scapegoat for an all round bad team showing in the first half.

Lucy Ward also mentioned in her TNT Sports commentary in the UK. For a manager who has done great work giving debuts, he is also reluctant to leave them on when he wants to add more first team players.

Maresca was clearly aware of how this move might have looked last night, and made it very clear in his press conference after the game that it was a tactical switch rather than a reflection of a bad showing from the youngster:

“We changed Josh Acheampong, not because he wasn’t doing well. He was doing very good. The first time he was playing a different kind of job and was for me doing very, very good. But we changed him because we need to change the structure. We were attacking with five, and we needed to attack with six.”

Acheampong will get a boost from good first half – but could have had more

Chelsea's team to take on Copenhagen at home in the Conference League. — Chelsea’s team to take on Copenhagen at home in the Conference League. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

We still don’t agree with the move – Acheampong was doing fine out there as he says, and keeping Cucurella fully fresh for Sunday would have been such a bonus. The coach could easily have brought on Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku without making the left back change too. If he wanted an extra man in attack, tell Josh to get forward more in the way we’ve seen Cucurella do.

But we are pleased he’s taken the trouble to make this clear and to praise Josh for what we agree was a really promising first half in a challenging role.

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Maresca makes his opinion clear on youngster he subbed at half time

Acheampong will get a boost from good first half – but could have had more

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