Enzo Maresca opens up on why he can’t play Jackson and Nkunku together | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has revealed he would like to play Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson together but from a defensive standpoint it just isn’t possible.

Nkunku sent a reminder to Maresca of what he’s capable of as he scored his first Chelsea hat-trick in Tuesday night’s 5-0 win over Barrow in the Carabao Cup.

With Jackson given the night off the France international made the most of his opportunity and put in an impressive display and also demonstrated some good link up play.

Maresca on Nkunku and Jackson

Nkunku has found himself out of favour in the league and other than starting the first game of the season against Manchester City he’s had to make do with appearances from the bench.

Jackson in contrast has been Maresca’s preferred choice through the middle and he’s made an impressive start to the season with four goals and two assists in the first five Premier League games.

However, Nkunku’s goal scoring record is impressive and he has six goals in 310 minutes of football this season and his form certainly gives Maresca a selection headache.

Nkunku scored his first Chelsea hat-trick against Barrow. (Photo by Reuters)

After the game against Barrow, Maresca was asked about the possibility of playing the pair together, and admitted he would like to but revealed why he couldn’t.

“The problem is the defensive balance, because we can think of playing with Nicolas, Christo, Joao, Palmer Noni, fantastic but then who is defending? Me and you? We need to run back,” he told reporters.

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“The problem is, I would like to put all of them, because I really like football and I really like to keep the ball. The problem is that when you lose the ball and then you have to defend, not all of them can defend at the same level.”

It’s a great problem for Maresca to have and given the amount of games Chelsea could potentially face this season there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for players to show what they can do and try and force their way into the starting line-up.