John Obi Mikel, former Chelsea midfielder has shared his thoughts on team selection and squad rotation in a recent episode of the Obi One Podcast, Softfootball reports. The discussion was based on why managers should stick with their strongest starting eleven.
In his conversation with co-host Chris McHardy, Mikel talked about Chelsea’s head coach Enzo Maresca and his concern about injuries and protecting players but noted that every Premier League team are faced with the same problem.
Following Chelsea’s recent matches, including the 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Cardiff City, Mikel’s statement comes at a time when the club is under scrutiny for their team selections.
Mikel believes that a manager’s best players should start games regularly especially when the team is winning, as constant changes could affect a team’s confidence.
He also used examples of top managers like Pep Guardiola to emphasize his point. According to him, when Pep’s team is performing well, he hardly makes changes to his lineups unless there are injuries.
A recent example is Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace where Pep Guardiola started strong players like Erling Haaland and Phil Foden which helped them control the game and the victory in the end.
In the podcast which was shared on its official X handle, he also recalled how former Chelsea manager José Mourinho trusted his starting eleven so much that he would sometimes mention their names before matches. He said;
Your best eleven should and you can see that with Pep Guardiola and Arsenal as well. Pep when his team is winning, he rarely changes. I can understand when it comes, you know in terms of injuries, I can understand that but when you start changing too much, it sort of affects the rhythm of the squad, the rhythm of the team. Mourinho when his team is winning, he rarely changes. He rarely changes. He trusts his eleven sometimes, he was so arrogant. He goes in a press conference and names his 11. He said, ‘he’s playing, he’s playing, he’s playing.’ You know who started the game? This is my starting eleven and I’m not gonna change because we are on a run especially when you’re a young team as well. A young player growing up, you know you play one game and you play well and all of a sudden the manager hooks you out and say “you’re not starting the next game” How do you mentally deal with that as well come back to the next game and straightaway try to keep that rhythm of the last game where you played so well. It’s kind of difficult to keep that up, especially in the Premier League and where every game is so difficult so Enzo needs to find a way to deal with that situation. I can understand his worries are not to lose the players for a long term in terms of injury-wise. I get that but every team in the Premier League is dealing with the same issue. Give them a run of games and see what happens.
However, Mikel still defended Maresca, describing him as a brilliant young manager despite the challenges Chelsea are facing. He insisted on not judging the coach too quickly, reminding listeners of Chelsea’s strong finish last season.
Watch the podcast below;
The words from Mikel Obi shows how trust, consistency and confidence are the keys to good modern football management.
