After Chelsea lost 1-3 to Leeds United away, club legend John Terry severely criticized the team's performance and publicly suggested that coach Maresca stop rotating the lineup. He believes that if Chelsea wants to return to the championship track, the team must determine a fixed lineup and let the players accept it themselves.
When it comes to the team's performance, Terry said bluntly: "That was a really bad performance. I've said everything about Leeds United away before, they will be very aggressive, the fans will go all out, they will be full of hostility. Either you keep up with their rhythm, or completely suppress the fire of the game, and we obviously didn't do that in the first half."
Chelsea lost Moises Caicedo due to a red card in the game against Arsenal, and Maresca could only replace the Ecuadorian international with Andrey Santos. However, he made four adjustments on this basis, which disrupted the balance of the team. Leeds United took a 2-0 lead early. Although Pedro Neto came off the bench in the second half and scored a goal, Calvert-Lewin used Chelsea's defense to make another mistake and seal the victory.
Terry said: 'After Neto came on in the second half, we saw hope and caught up with the score to 2-1, but we can't keep playing like this. You can't continue to play like this after two incredible performances against Barcelona and Arsenal, because it definitely won't make you a championship contender in the end.'
He believes that Chelsea's biggest problem is lack of experience: "This is the reason why we will ultimately pay the price, we lack experience. If you don't know what you will encounter when you play away against Leeds United, you need to show your fighting spirit and compete with Leeds in all aspects. You need to win the qualification first, and then really play at your level after 15 or 20 minutes. We didn't do that tonight, and it will cost us."
Terry also reminded the team that the difficult schedule is still ahead: "We have Bournemouth away next, and there are many difficult away games that will only get harder. We must find a way to deal with them."
Recalling his experience as a player, Terry added: 'Even when I was playing, you knew that going to Leeds United away was a tough battle from the first minute. You had to make sure everyone was motivated. Set pieces, personal mistakes, defensive errors. Obviously, none of them were good enough.'
Therefore, he made a clear suggestion to Maresca: "Perhaps this can make the coach re-examine the lineup. He can say: rotation is not suitable for me. I know my best starting 11 players, or 13 or 14 players, and I will stick to them. The rest can only accept this on their own."