Enzo Maresca names three indispensable players Chelsea must protect
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Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca highlighted the importance of three key players in his team amid injury problems.
On paper, Chelsea have one of the best squads in the Premier League in terms of squad depth.
Maresca arguably has a harder time keeping everyone in his squad happy than most managers.
However, the Blues boss still has a few key players in mind that he heavily relies on, especially with him already dealing with several injury problems, including the absences of Liam Delap and Levi Colwill.
When speaking about Cole Palmer's groin injury situation, he might have listed some of them.
"We need to protect Cole, for sure," Maresca told reporters.
"Not only Cole, in my personal view, because of the Club World Cup and because we never stop.
"We need to manage and protect different players. For sure, Cole is one of them. Another one is Moi (Caicedo).
"Joao Pedro, also. Since he joined us, he's playing every game. The solution with Cole's (injury problem), I don't know."
Chelsea's key trio
Unlike last season, in which Maresca could easily rotate his team in the Conference League without much issues, this season's Champions League campaign means he will have to put out his best team more often.
The emphasis on Palmer is understandable since he is arguably the team's best player and primary creative spark.
Caicedo and Joao Pedro are in a similar situation that Maresca does not have many replacement options due to injury.
Lavia, who recently returned to training, is still not ready to make a comeback yet, and he and Caicedo are the two defensive-minded midfielders in the team.
Liam Delap is still expected to be out for a few months and it leaves Joao Pedro as the experienced striker in the team, with Marc Guiu and Tyrique George as possible rotation options.
Losing any of these three would certainly spell trouble to Chelsea's hopes of challenging for the title this season.
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.