Maresca names one player who will play against Ajax – but fails to answer big question

“[Leaving out] Wes is just a way to try to protect him a little bit,” Maresca said.

“For me, Wes is the same as Josh [Acheampong]. I said many times that I really like Wes and he’s going to play games. But it was just to protect. He will be available for Ajax.”

A journalist then pushed for more information, but still didn’t get a straight answer:

“In general. I think with Wes, what do we need to do with Wes, with Romeo [Lavia], with Reece [James], is we need to do what we have done with Reece.

“Now Reece is playing three games a week, he’s playing almost every game, he’s fit, he’s good. And we need to try to do exactly the same with Wes and with Romeo. I would love to have inside the pitch every game Romeo, Wes and Reece. But it’s not possible. It’s not possible, we need to manage them. And the main target this season is try to rotate and keep all of them fit.

No clear answers over Fofana status

Maresca has to “protect” injury prone players like James and Lavia from playing too much. That makes sense. But Lavia hasn’t played for almost a month now. He should be fresher than anyone else in the squad. If he’s not injured, how are you protecting him by leaving him out here? We don’t get it.