Enzo Maresca already explained why John Terry's Chelsea advice currently not viable
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Enzo Maresca has made it clear that he had no choice but to make some of the team changes he made in Chelsea's 3-1 defeat to Leeds United on Wednesday.
After making minimal team changes against Barcelona and Arsenal last week, Maresca decided to rotate his team for the trip to Elland Road.
The rotation is most noticeable at the back, where Benoit Badiashile and Tosin Adarabioyo were chosen to start as a centre-back pairing, while Trevoh Chalobah was moved to the right-back spot.
Chelsea legend John Terry was clearly among those who were not impressed by Maresca's rotation approach.
John Terry what Chelsea need to do after last night pic.twitter.com/5Jp6GctthG
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Posting on TikTok, Terry said: "Maybe that's an opportunity for the manager to look at the squad and go, 'OK, rotations are not for me moving forward.
"'I know my best starting 11, 13, or 14 players I'm going to stick with that, and the players are just going to have to deal with it.'"
Maresca did not deny that the rotations might have hindered his team, but insisted he did it out of necessity.
"Probably," Maresca admitted to Chelsea's in-house media team when asked if the team's changes disrupted the rhythm.
"For different reasons, we (needed) to make changes.
"Again, to protect players like Wes (Fofana), Reece (James)... Moi (Caicedo) is out (suspended) -- all important players for us.
"We need to (make the changes) to protect the players that are very important for us.
"But even after making changes, you have to come here and perform much better."
Both James and Fofana have struggled with injuries in the last few years, and it makes sense for Maresca to be cautious in managing their workload.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, these two are arguably their two best defenders aside from Levi Colwill, who is on a long-term cruciate ligament injury.
Gerry Crisandy is a freelance writer who has covered Chelsea for many years. His work has been published on The Chelsea Chronicle and Pride of London. He grew up idolising Michael Ballack and is a firm believer in expected goals.