Flamengo vs. Chelsea: Enzo Maresca reveals team news, approach to rotation ahead of Club World Cup fixture

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has confirmed that he plans to rotate his starting lineup for Friday's Club World Cup fixture against Flamengo.

The Blues commenced their campaign against Los Angeles FC on Monday, coming through with a 2-0 victory in Atlanta.

Squaring off against Brasileiro leaders Flamengo is expected to be a step up in quality for the Blues as they bid to reach the last 16 and beyond.

As such, naming the same first XI would make sense, yet Maresca has indicated on more than one occasion that he will try to spread opportunities around the squad.

Speaking ahead of the showdown in Philadelphia, the Italian acknowledged that he would start managing the minutes of the players who began the game with LAFC.

What has Maresca said on Flamengo game?

Tosin Adarabioyo, Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto were the four outfield players to complete the 90 minutes earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Reece James was one of two players - the other being Romeo Lavia - who were withdrawn at half time to manage their fitness.

Captain James was namechecked when Maresca spoke to the media on Thursday, albeit it remaining to be seen how many alterations will be made.

Maresca said: "No injuries at the moment, but because it’s a tournament and we have a game every three days, we need to rotate players.

'I’m not saying we’re going to rotate ten or eleven players each game, but we will need to rotate three, four or five players each game for sure. This is because we cannot play every three days with the same players.

‘The ones we tried to rotate a little bit in the first game are the ones we have tried to rotate since day one: Romeo (Lavia) and Reece (James). We also gave some minutes off to Moi, who has played the whole season, by bringing on Dario Essugo. We will try to continue on that."

Who could be rested?

As well as the aforementioned quartet who complete Monday's contest, Moises Caicedo may also drop down to the substitutes' bench.

The Ecuador international started every Premier League fixture in 2024-25, recently started both of his national team's World Cup qualifiers and played over 80 minutes versus LAFC.

Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez seems likely to keep his place between the sticks.

Written by
Darren Plant