“No, no, no” – Maresca’s confusing answer over Palmer and Jackson creates more questions | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca is spinning a lot of plates at the moment, now we’ve reached the business end of the season.

For a long time he was able to put out a B team in the Conference League and keep the first team fresh for the Premier League. Well, now we’re into the quarter finals of the former and into the crucial final weeks of the latter every game matters, and it’s hard to know who to rest when.

Cole Palmer both played last Thursday against Tottenham, then started the game against Brentford on Sunday on the bench.

Does that mean they’ll be starting tomorrow night against Legia Warsaw? Or will they start on the bench to keep them ready for the Ipswich game on Sunday? The manager was asked that in his press conference just now and gave a rather confusing answer:

“Probably from outside, you receive in the wrong way the reason why Cole and Nico didn’t play [against Brentford]. They didn’t play, but not because we want to rest them for today. They didn’t play because there was a game plan, because Brentford had 24 hours more than us, because some of the players were tired,” the manager explained.

“So we planned the game to start in one way, and then to finish with Cole, with Nico, with Pedro, with four or five changes. And it nearly worked, because we deserved to win, especially in the last half an hour, but it was all planned. But we didn’t decide to leave them out for today. No, no, no. It was because we planned the game in that way, because they needed it.”

Maresca’s answer only deepens confusion

Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson celebrate together. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

It’s a slightly confusing answer. He’s saying they were left out because they were tired – but not because he wanted to rest them for tomorrow’s game? Does that mean we won’t see them until Sunday? We can’t say we’re any clearer on his thinking. He says that from the outside we didn’t get the reason he left them out last week, but if the reason was in order to rest them then we really did get it.