Chelsea take on Wolves tomorrow, a perfect chance to take a look at Pedro Neto’s Blues career so far as he prepares to face his old team.
That’s just what the Athletic did today, getting some interesting quotes from Neto’s former coaches. They claimed that Chelsea’s squad depth was helping the Portugal star stay fit and put the issues he had at Wolves behind him.
Neto’s new situation helping him stay fit claims former coaches
Pedro Neto before Chelsea - Forest.
Pedro Neto before Chelsea – Forest. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
“The squad at Chelsea is so strong,” former Wolves coach Ian Burchnall said.
“If they need to rest him for a game or bring him out for 20 minutes in a game, they can do it without the drop-off from Pedro coming off being too big. They’ve got such talent to come in. I think that can protect him a little bit.”
In fact, there’s a little more than that going on. There’s actually a major clamour for Estevao to start ahead of Neto on the basis of form alone right now. But we don’t see it happening, and that’s a great credit to Neto and the trust that Enzo Maresca has in him.
The coach loves the discipline and work rate that Neto brings, and prefers having him start game with Estevao in reserve to finish them.
When you read the kind of praise that Neto gets in this piece from his former coaches, you can see why he ends up becoming a staff favourite wherever he goes.
In other news…
Maresca used his press conference today to defend his decision to keep changing centre-backs, claiming that the solid clean sheet record his team has proves there’s no problem doing that.
As well as speaking about the defence, Maresca addressed the general concept of his rotation policy and why he thought it was so necessary in a busy season, particularly in the modern game.
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Pedro Neto before Chelsea - Forest.
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