Soccer Football - Premier League - Leeds United v Chelsea - Elland Road, Leeds, Britain - December 3, 2025 Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca REUTERS/Chris Radburn
Dec 5 (Reuters) - Rotating players is something Chelsea must do to protect players who cannot play every three days, manager Enzo Maresca said ahead of a trip to Bournemouth where his team will look to put Wednesday's 3-1 loss at Leeds United behind them.
Maresca faced heavy criticism for the loss at relegation-threatened Leeds, which came after he made five changes to the starting line-up that held leaders Arsenal to a 1-1 draw despite being down to 10 men last weekend.
The loss broke Chelsea's seven-match unbeaten run in all competitions. Fourth-placed Chelsea are nine points behind Arsenal.
"Most of the rotation we do is because the other player cannot play. We have players unable to play every three days," Maresca told reporters on Friday.
"We have four or five players we need to protect and manage. I would like to play all the games with Reece (James), Pedro (Neto), Moi (Moises Caicedo), even Romeo (Lavia), but it is not possible, so we try and find a different solution."
Saturday's game at Bournemouth will be Chelsea's fifth within two weeks since the international break.
Moises Caicedo, who has played 50 out of 51 league games under Maresca, will be out for two more matches as he serves a three-game ban for his red card. Lavia, Levi Colwill and Dario Essugo are out with injuries.
"I watched the (Leeds) game back. We did many things bad. We paid the bill because Leeds away can be complicated. There are things we need to avoid in the future," Maresca said.
Maresca said he expected the Bournemouth game to be similar to the one at Leeds.
"Leeds were very intense and were better than us in all the aspects. Hopefully we can learn from that and be better tomorrow," he added.
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in BengaluruEditing by Christian Radnedge)
