Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca set to copy huge Man Utd gamble that started downfall

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is set to take one of the biggest gambles of his managerial reign so far ahead of their UEFA Conference League clash with Astana on Thursday.

The Italian has guided the Blues to second in the Premier League with nine wins from 15 games and, as expected, his side have dominated in Europe’s third-tier competition despite fielding their second string.

Chelsea put eight past Armenian minnows FC Noah as well as securing 4-1 and 4-2 victories over Panathiniakos and Gent respectively. Their 2-0 success over Heidenheim last time out helped preserve their 100 per cent record in the competition.

But a 7,000-mile round trip to Kazakhstan to face Astana offers a potential banana skin for Maresca, who has dealt with every ounce of adversity with an impressive measure of composure so far.

To avoid their key players getting jet-lagged from the gruelling trip to the Eurasian nation, Chelsea could take nearly a dozen of their promising youth graduates plucked from Cobham to play the fixture.

Kaiden Wilson, Harrison Murray-Campbell, Tyrique George, Kiano Dyer, Harrison McMahon, Sam Rak-Sakyi, Ato Ampah, Max Merrick, Josh Acheampong, Shim Mheuka and Richard Olise are all available to appear in the competition after being added to the UEFA ‘B’ squad list.

“Some of them are going to be here [at Cobham] and some of them will fly with us,” the Italian boss said.

“More or less, we will try and manage in the same way we have done. We have many young players, 17 with us, and the rest will be here working.”

Maresca suggested the long flight time just four days before their league game forced him to protect his players from the exhausting trip and leave them in the UK.

“Eight hours is not a normal time for a game,” he added. “But we have to go there and have to play, do our best and thinking also about the next game.”

Of course, there is little to suggest Chelsea’s homegrown prospects will let them down.

George, 18, has fared as well as any Blues player in Europe this season, while Sam Rak-Sakyi and Kiano Dyer have also been used from the bench in previous ties against Noah and Heidenheim.

But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer probably thought the same when he was in a similar position as Manchester United boss around five years ago.

Back in 2019, Solskjaer opted to give some of United’s young squad members a chance to impress in the freezing Kazakh cold, with names such as Ethan Laird, Dylan Levitt and DiShon Bernard all featuring for the Red Devils.

There were a smattering of established United players in the team to help lead them, as Jesse Lingard and Luke Shaw both started.

But the visitors found themselves on the end of a 2-1 defeat in the Europa League – a result that is still remembered as one of United’s most unflattering in continental competition.

Solskjaer was already in a tough spot after watching his side’s form suffer and less than two years on from that infamous tie, he was sacked in November 2021.

Maresca will be hoping this isn’t the start of his undoing too after a decent start to life at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea are in the luxury position of leading the overall league phase having won all four games so far, so one defeat wouldn’t cripple their hopes of progressing further.

But it may halt their momentum and do some unnecessary psychological damage if Maresca’s young players – being asked to play in tough conditions – struggle to perform.