“Why would you start him? It’s a disaster” – Maresca decision to use disinterested star questioned | OneFootball

Christopher Nkunku put in such a poor performance for Chelsea yesterday, and in fact has been so bad for some time now, that Enzo Maresca was forced to defend him in a press conference yesterday, insisting that it’s not a lack of effort from the Frenchman that’s an issue.

Well nobody else seems to agree, whether that’s us, the Athletic’s Liam Twomey in his piece today, or the London is Blue podcast in their coverage of the game:

“Playing with him in the team, it harkens back to some of the worst Fernando Torres days when we would line up with essentially a negative one player up there,” David Pasztor said in their post-match coverage.

“He was never on the same page with anybody, whether it was James trying to give him a through ball, Enzo kind of yelling at him to drop for the ball. It’s just a disaster with that guy, with Nkunku, so it’s got to be an effort or a mentality thing thing that’s happening here with him, and he just doesn’t seem to want to be here. Which leads to the question of why you would start him. Just don’t play him then.”

You can see Pasztor speaking in the clip embedded here:

Team orders the only explanation for Maresca decision

Christopher Nkunku loses another physical duel. (Photo by Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)

When it comes to the question of why Maresca continues to play him, one would imagine it has to be on the orders of the sporting directors.

Pedro Neto already proved himself to be a far better option as a false 9 replacement for Nicolas Jackson, and we don’t understand why we didn’t just deploy him in that role again. He could have been rested against Spurs and done that last night, or been used in both games then given both games off this week.