When Joao Felix joined Chelsea this summer, there was the obligatory interview on the club's website. “I can't wait to get started,” said the 25-year-old Portuguese. Some would argue he's still waiting.
Felix has been an unused substitute in eight of the last 11 Premier League matches in which he has been on the bench, including Saturday's 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace. The three times he was used by Enzo Maresca were in the 81st, 86th and 89th minute.
This does not mean that Felix should be used week in, week out. Rather than being a glaring £45m example of how Maresca isn't the most proactive coach when it comes to such adjustments, he's a potential game-changer whose creativity could occasionally prove useful when the legs get tired.
First a few statistics:
Chelsea have conceded seven goals in the last 15 minutes of matches this season and their next Premier League opponent, Bournemouth, who top the table in terms of total number of substitutes used, have scored more than any other side in that period , 12 in the rankings. total.
Maresca is right to question the size of his squad after Chelsea were mocked last summer, but the depth? That's up there with the best players in the Premier League, including the talent coming out of Cobham. It's a squad so big that they could name a brand new team in the Conference League and still win every game.
An intriguing exchange took place during Maresca's post-match press conference at Selhurst Park. He was asked why he had stopped using his replacements.
It was a fair question. Amid this four-match winless run, he has used two at Everton (Christopher Nkunku after 75 minutes, Madueke after 76), one at home against Fulham (Nkunku after 73), four at Ipswich (Nicolas Jackson after 55, Sancho after 65 , Pedro Neto and Malo Gusto after 77, all once 2-0 down) and two at Crystal Palace (Marc Guiu after 81, Madueke after 86).
And so Maresca was asked the reason. He fired off his own question, asking who specifically he should have traded. The back-and-forth ended with Chelsea's head coach explaining that it is his job to know when it is best to tweak, adding: 'I like to make changes when we know the reason why. '
And that's fair enough. Maresca holds a UEFA Pro license and is such a strategist that while studying at the famous Coverciano football school, he wrote a thesis on the similarities between chess and football. Meanwhile, we writers try to come up with puns that aren't too cheesy.
But it can still be frustrating to watch the clock count down and players warm up, when we and they know that the chances of an appearance are diminishing by the minute.
It worked at the very start of this Premier League season. In the first four matches, Chelsea's substitutes registered a third of the goal contributions they scored during their entire last season.
Felix scored for Wolves while Neto assisted in a tactical half-time substitution. Sancho was also brought on at half-time in Bournemouth – another unforced substitution – and set up Nkunku to score the winner. At the time, the feeling was that if Chelsea could stay in the game until the final half hour, their substitutes could make the difference for Maresca.
But since then, such effects have dried up. Bournemouth are their next visitors in the Premier League, a side who are unbeaten in their last eight games under Andoni Iraola.
That match is still just over a week away and so one hopes that Maresca will have plenty of time in training to decide who he can trust enough to call on, if and when the time is right.
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