Chelsea boss, Enzo Maresca, has responded to criticism he received for not fielding Estevao Willian in their Champions League defeat to Atalanta on Tuesday night.
The Italian has tried to explain why the young Brazilian was an unused substitute in his side’s defeat to the Serie A side.
Chelsea are now outside the automatic qualification zone for the knockout stages as the Blues were beaten 2-1 by Atalanta.
The Blues took the lead through Joao Pedro midway through the first-half but the Italian side netted twice in the second-half to clinch their fourth win from six European games.
This meant that Atalanta are now third in the Champions League group phase ahead of Wednesday’s other European fixtures while Chelsea slipped to 11th.
Chelsea supporters were surprised and disappointed that Maresca kept Estevao on the bench for the entirety of the game.
Asked the reason for dropping one of the best players for the Blues this season on the bench, he said, “The idea, the change of Tosin, is because Wes went in to change him. So that was a bit of a force, for sure.
“With one more change, probably there was more chance for Estevao to go inside or for Andrey [Santos] to go inside. But then with that change, it changed a little bit the plan of the game.”
Since joining Chelsea in the summer, Estevao has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting young players in world football.
