Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has explained why he did not bring on summer signing Alejandro Garnacho to face his former club Manchester United in Saturday’s Premier League tie at Old Trafford.
Garnacho was an unused substitute on his return to United as Chelsea, who lost first choice Robert Sanchez to a 4th minute red card for fouling Bryan Mbeumo, fell to a 2-1 defeat.
United also had a player sent off as Brazilian midfielder Casemiro received his second yellow card for a foul also.
Garnacho watched on from the bench as the Blues fell were beaten by his former teammates.
The 21-year-old received a frosty reception from the United fans throughout proceedings, but was unable to make his mark as Maresca opted against bringing the Argentine on.
Speaking after the encounter Maresca revealed why, with centre-back Wesley Fofana playing a key role in his decision.
“Garna, he was ready to go on,” Maresca said (via si.com), “but then Wes asked for the change, because he was tired after a long time, so we changed and we decided to go for Tyrique, and the idea was to give Garnacho minutes.
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Maresca denied that Garnacho not getting any minute against his former side had nothing to do with the potential reception from the fans.
“He was ready, and he was ready to go on, and then Wes asked for a change.”
On his decision to take off the trio of Cole Palmer, Estêvão and Pedro Neto early in the match, the Italian told Sky Sports:“We needed to defend with five players, we can defend with four when we are 11v11.
“We decided to change Estevao and Pedro Neto and then after we changed Cole (Palmer) because he made an effort to play the game because he was not 100 per cent fit. He had a test this morning and he was ok but not 100 per cent fit so also we changed him after 20 minutes.”
Garnacho will now hope to make his first Chelsea start on Tuesday evening against Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup third round.
