Chelsea: Enzo Maresca explains surprise decision to leave Noni Madueke out of squad for Fulham loss

Evening Standard

·26 December 2024

Chelsea: Enzo Maresca explains surprise decision to leave Noni Madueke out of squad for Fulham loss

Enzo Maresca insists the Chelsea forward was fit and available for selection against Fulham on Boxing Day

Noni Madueke was dropped for Chelsea’s Boxing Day defeat to Fulham in what manager Enzo Maresca called a “technical decision”.

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The Blues were stunned by Fulham’s late fightback as goals from substitutes Harry Wilson and Rodrigo Muniz saw the Cottagers come from behind to secure their first win at Stamford Bridge since 1979.

Madueke was a surprising absentee from a matchday squad, having featured off the bench in the goalless draw at Everton last Sunday.

No injury had been reported in the build-up to the game and Maresca confirmed afterwards that the winger is fit. Asked to explain the situation, the Italian tactician - who named two goalkeepers among his substitutes - replied only: “Technical decision”.

It is not the first time Maresca has issued a public rebuke of the young forward. Earlier this month, Madueke was dropped to the bench for the win over Aston Villa because of his poor training ground performances.

“In the moment that he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit,” Maresca explained at the time.

“The reason he was not playing [against Aston Villa] is because I don’t like the way he trained. He has to understand that he has to train every day good, he has to be ambitious.”

Frustrated: Enzo Maresca saw his Chelsea side lose at home to Fulham on Boxing Day.

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Meanwhile, Maresca bemoaned his side’s poor game management, after Fulham scored twice in the final ten minutes to inflict only the Blues’ third league defeat of the campaign.

Wilson’s equaliser cancelled out Cole Palmer’s superb opener, but as Chelsea pressed desperately to retake the lead they were left exposed and Muniz profited with a 95th-minute strike to steal all three points.

“Especially for the way we conceded the goals, it’s a bad feeling,” Maresca explained. “And as I’ve said many times, when you cannot win it’s important you don’t lose.

“The first 15 or 20 minutes of the second-half was the part I didn’t like because we conceded too many transitions and they are a team that builds from transitions.

“In the first-half we controlled that very well, we scored and we created chances. In the second-half, in the first 15 or 20 minutes, we gave them too much energy.”

Asked what lessons his team could learn, the 44-year-old added: “To manage the game better because we knew that they are very good in transition.

“It’s difficult to find a team like them with so many players who can run a lot, like Alex Iwobi, Adama Traore, Raul Jimenez, Antonee Robinson.

“It’s a game that before you attack you have to give passes, passes because that makes us together. If we attack with one or two passes, we are stretched, we are open and they attack us. It’s a lesson we can learn.”