Enzo Maresca has defended his decision not to bring Cole Palmer off the bench as his Chelsea side crashed out of the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle.
The Blues suffered only their third loss of Maresca’s reign as Alexander Isak’s strike and an Axel Disasi own goal saw Newcastle into the quarter-final.
As has been the case throughout the season so far, Maresca fielded an entirely changed team for the midweek fixture, with several players who had started the 2-1 win over the same opposition in the Premier League on Sunday left out of the squad entirely.
However, Palmer did travel to Newcastle and was named on the bench, with Maresca insisting in his pre-match interview that he was ready to use his talisman if required.
With his team trailing 2-0 throughout the second-half, though, Maresca’s only change saw Noni Madueke introduced in place of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on the right-wing, while counterpart Eddie Howe used all five of his permitted changes to see out the result.
“No, no,” Maresca said, when asked whether there was a specific reason why Palmer had not been used with his team chasing the game.
“Simply because I thought Joao [Felix] and Christopher [Nkunku] were doing very good. It was just in case we needed Cole but because Joao and Christo were doing well, there was not a need to change.”
Chelsea are concerned about Palmer’s workload after his stunning breakthrough season was followed by a run to the final of Euro 2024 with England.
He has been left out of their squad for the Conference League group stage and, as a result, has played exclusively in the Premier League this season, with Chelsea’s Carabao Cup exit meaning that will remain the case at least until the New Year.
