Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca will take a much-changed squad to Kazakhstan for tomorrow night’s Conference League clash with Astana – with Noni Madueke one of his senior players that will not travel.
Chelsea have cruised through their fixtures in Europe’s third-tier competition, winning all four to move to the top of the table and virtually guarantee themselves automatic qualification to the round of 16.
With a busy festive period looming, and an eight-hour flight to contend with, Maresca admits there will be a youthful look to his side.
Asked if this game was an opportunity to rest senior players, he said: “Some of them are going to be here [in England] and some of them are going to fly with us. More or less we are going to try and manage in the same way we have done until today. We have many young players with us and the rest are going to be here working.”
5,606km away from home for our next #UECL clash. ✈️🌏 pic.twitter.com/5KPsk3MuFj
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 11, 2024
Madueke will be remaining in the UK with the England winger set to return to the first XI for the game with Brentford at the weekend with Pedro Neto suspended following his booking in the thrilling 4-3 win at Spurs on Sunday.
Encouraging update on Acheampong
Teenager Josh Acheampong is likely to start tomorrow with Maresca revealing the highly rated defender is close to agreeing a new contract following a stand-off that reportedly saw him frozen out.
The Italian said: “With Josh it is all quite clear. We all love Josh, the club loves Josh, I love Josh and we are trying to find an agreement. We are close, we are almost there. We’ll see.
“He is in the squad and is probably going to play from the start.”
Chelsea are overwhelming favourites to win the Conference League but Maresca was not looking that far ahead, preferring instead to focus on the here and now.
“No, I’ve said already about this competition the main target is to go to the next stage and the next one,” he said. “The target is to go to the next one and if we achieve the next one then the next one. I don’t like to think about things in four or five months.
“It’s not about ambition. I am quite ambitious and the players and the club are ambitious but in my opinion if you think about things in four or five months then you can lose a bit of focus on the now.”
Players will stay on English time
A trip to Kazakhstan is a challenge logistically but the Chelsea players will remain on English time in a bid to minimise disruption.
Maresca said: “We have a session now and then we will fly there. We will have dinner and go to bed. Fortunately, they are five hours ahead of us so that means when we wake up tomorrow it is already midday here in England.
“We are going to be there less than 24 hours, but it’s more the flight and the temperature [-11C] for sure. On Friday morning we are going to land around 6am in London and it is already Friday and we have a game Sunday, but we have to play.”
