Tonight’s Chelsea team will tell us Maresca’s decision over big call in defence | OneFootball

Reece James and Malo Gusto are both excellent players, but to differing extents both have shown themselves to be fairly injury prone. We all know about Reece’s long term issues, but Gusto has had his fair share of missed games too in the 18 months since he signed for us.

Having them both out for the last few weeks has meant manage Enzo Maresca has had to improvise a bit at right back. We saw Axel Disasi used there for a while, with Wesley Fofana partnering Levi Colwill at centre back. But following a test run at the end of the Bournemouth game, Saturday’s game against West Ham saw Fofana moved to the right, while Tosin Adarabioyo replaced him in the middle.

The team did very well, leading to the question of what happens when Gusto (or James) is back. They will surely play on the right. Does Maresca then return to Fofana with Colwill in the middle, or leave the Tosin-Colwill duo that did well last weekend?

Tosin Adarabioyo dominates the ball in the game against Servette. (Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)

Good problems stacking up for Maresca

Whatever ends up happening, it’s nice that this is now the issue we’re having. Just a few weeks ago, the issue was that neither Fofana nor Tosin was good enough. Now the debate is over which one gets to play. That’s a big improvement, and a sign of how rapidly form and sentiment has changed.

Our sense is that, given Fofana was the manager’s choice above Tosin to start the season when everyone was available, he will return to that. But there’s no question that the former Fulham man looks good in the middle. Assuming he gets picked again tonight for the Carabao Cup game against Barrow, he should get another chance to impress. On the day of his 27th birthday he will be of the senior players and looking to show what he can do.