Enzo Maresca reveals second Chelsea player was dropped for Fulham defeat and explains Noni Madueke decision | OneFootball

Madueke was dropped from the Blues squad on Boxing Day for ’technical’ reasons

Enzo Maresca is expecting a positive response from Noni Madueke after he was axed from Chelsea’s Boxing Day squad - and revealed Renato Veiga was also dropped for “technical” reasons.

Maresca is dealing with a number of injuries to first-team players at present, as well as Mykhailo Mudryk’s provisional doping suspension, and named two substitute goalkeepers on a notably thin bench.

He confirmed afterwards that Madueke was fit to play but initially refused to elaborate on the reason for his absence beyond calling it “just a technical decision”.

Maresca has been critical of Madueke’s attitude in the past

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“Sometimes we just take a decision and it’s no more than that,” he added.

However, when pressed on whether the winger’s omission was designed to keep motivation and competition high among his squad, Maresca, who has been critical of Madueke’s attitude in the past, said: “For sure, the competition has to be higher.

“But not only for Noni Madueke. But also Renato Veiga was not in the squad and the reason is exactly the same for both of them. There is not any different reason, it’s just a technical decision.”

It is understood that both players attended the Fulham game and sat behind the home dugout.

It was the first time this season that either player has not been included in a Premier League match day squad, with Veiga’s absence coming despite Maresca facing an injury crisis in defence.

Summer signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was also missing, but Maresca revealed that the former Leicester man is struggling with injury.

Of Madueke, Maresca claimed back in August that “the only problem with him probably is that he has to understand he needs to be consistent during the week”.

The England international was also left out of the starting XI for the win over Aston Villa last month, with Maresca issuing another public rebuke in the aftermath.

“The moment he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit and the reason why he was not playing is because I do not like the way he trained,” Maresca said at the time. "He has to understand that he has to train every day good. He has to be ambitious.”

Madueke came off the bench to register an assist against Villa and went on to add a goal and another assist when restored to the lineup against Southampton in the subsequent game.

Maresca confirmed that the 22-year-old will be back in contention for Monday night’s trip to Ipswich and will demand a similar response from his player.

“He responded very good at that time so there is no more than that,” he added. “I expect the same this time, yeah absolutely.”