The Daily Mail reported that Chelsea coach Maresca actually hopes that the team can sign a new central defender to fill the vacancy of Colville's serious injury, but the club's senior management does not agree.
Maresca once emphasized the importance of Colville, which is not only dependent on the latter's defensive ability, but also on his ability to attack with extremely penetrating passes from the backcourt. This is why Maresca hopes to sign a suitable central defender this month after Colville needs to be out of the game due to an ACL injury. Although Chelsea has more central defenders than most opponents, Maresca believes that there is no player in the team who can directly replace Colville, and Adara Biyo's injury in training has made him even worse.
However, Chelsea management disagrees with Maresca's point of view. They made it clear that the team must tap potential internally, and the club has no checkbook for central defenders to sign. This summer, Chelsea has invested heavily - signing Gittens 48.5 million pounds, signing Harto 37 million pounds, signing Joao Pedro 60 million pounds, signing Drapp Jr. 30 million pounds, and the management believes that the current lineup is strong enough.
Therefore, the 19-year-old and 104-day local young player Achimpon was pushed to the central defender position. He became the second youngest starter in Chelsea's Premier League opening game history, second only to Glenn Johnson in the 2003-04 season.
Achimpen's overall performance was acceptable, but it was his pass error in the backcourt that Crystal Palace won a free kick, and Eze scored. As the visiting team celebrated, the Chelsea set-piece coach immediately protested to fourth official Salisbury, pointing out that Crystal Palace defender Guy was in violation of the rules by the wall. After the game, when asked again about signing Colville's replacement, Maresca said in a stiff tone: "Do you like talking about central defender? I have said it, thank you very much."
Obviously, Maresca failed to convince the senior management of the central defender's signings, and given the importance of this position to the team's tactics, he must find a solution as soon as possible.