Chelsea v Leicester City: Enzo Maresca should drop these stars

The Italian head coach will have several factors affecting his decision on the line-up: fatigue, recent form, competition priorities, and proving quality. The team will either have to rotate, and risk progression, or stay strong and risk fatigue in the Championship title race. Personally, I would opt for an adequate amount of rest and dropping out of form players.

Leicester City stars Maresca should drop

1. Stephy Mavididi

The English winger has looked all sorts of off in recent weeks. Not least in terms of finishing: in his last 10 Championship appearances, Mavididi has only clocked up a single goal, and that was a penalty. The player’s last goal from open play was on the 1/1/24 against Huddersfield. The Foxes have probably overplayed the explosive and versatile forward, so a rest and rotation is in order.

2. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

Another passionate starter in need of some time out of the team to recoup. ‘KDH’ has been electric and is clearly our best player in the Championship. However, despite running around and contributing to defence and offence, Dewsbury-Hall has one goal in 10 matches. Of course, the player does more than that, and he shall be missed, but Maresca should drop the English midfielder to rest and rotate.

3. Jannik Vestergaard

I was confused when the Danish giant returned to the side immediately after serving his suspension. I thought experienced former England international Conor coady would have kept his space. Vestergaard again has been stellar this season, although facing mostly lower-league opposition should be easy for a Premier League level defender. Also, the Dane is best when Leicester City intend to hold onto the ball for prolonged periods, where his passing is evidently better, which is not going to be the case against Chelsea.

The King Power side have to make a tough set of choices if it wants to keep up in the title race and compete in the FA Cup. The best thing to do is to rotate some players into the side and others out: we have already said who should start here. These three are not bad players: two are inconsistent and out of shooting form, and the other is not going to be as good as Coady.