{"id":607363,"date":"2025-12-02T12:26:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/607363\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T12:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:26:25","slug":"enzo-maresca-names-surprise-option-to-replace-moises-caicedo-in-leeds-vs-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/607363\/","title":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca names surprise option to replace Moises Caicedo in Leeds vs Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Enzo Maresca has a little bit of a dilemma heading into Chelsea\u2019s game against Leeds United on Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/club\/manager\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chelsea manager<\/a> will be without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/moises-caicedo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moises Caicedo<\/a>, who is suspended following his red card in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal last weekend.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/match-coverage\/enzo-maresca-is-ready-to-make-tough-reece-james-call-against-leeds-after-arsenal-masterclass\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James could also be rested<\/a> for the trip to Elland Road after playing the full 90 minutes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/club\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chelsea\u2019s<\/a> recent London derby.<\/p>\n<p>         Reece James set to be benched for Leeds vs Chelsea     <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"6.504347826087\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe reality is no!\u201d \ud83d\ude13<\/p>\n<p>Enzo Maresca says Reece James will be unable to face Leeds on Wednesday following his sensational performance against Arsenal \u2728 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5Bxb9EEVKa\">pic.twitter.com\/5Bxb9EEVKa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HaytersTV\/status\/1995226290928902578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>View Tweet<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/enzo-maresca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maresca<\/a> has now discussed who exactly could start in midfield for the Leeds match.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2249202460-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Moises Caicedo of Chelsea is greeted by his manager Enzo Maresca, as he walks off the pitch after being shown a red card\" \/>Photo by Ryan Pierse\/Getty ImagesEnzo Maresca hints he could use Josh Acheampong in midfield<\/p>\n<p>This season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/josh-acheampong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Josh Acheampong<\/a> has played at centre-back, while he has also started at right-back in the past.<\/p>\n<p>However, it looks like he could be set for a midfield role on Wednesday if Maresca does decide to use him.<\/p>\n<p>Initially asked whether Andrey Santos is ready to replace Caicedo, Maresca told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football.london\/chelsea-fc\/news\/enzo-maresca-press-conference-live-32980136?utm_source=linkCopy&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=sharebar#entry3847764\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">football.london<\/a> and other outlets in his pre-match press conference: \u201cAndrey is ready. His position is playing as a No.6, like Moi, but he is ready. One that can play good in that position is Josh, but we will see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What changes would you make?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"737\" height=\"960\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chelsea-predicted-xi-vs-leeds.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-338894\" \/>      <\/p>\n<p>The likelihood is that the Brazilian will start for Chelsea at Elland Road. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/columnist\/how-andrey-santos-proved-he-could-fill-in-for-moises-caicedo-long-before-burnley-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Santos came in for Caicedo against Burnley<\/a> and did a terrific job in the 24-year-old\u2019s role.<\/p>\n<p>If anything happens to him or Maresca needs to make a sub, though, it seems that Acheampong could be an option to play in midfield.<\/p>\n<p>Whoever starts in the engine room, Chelsea should have enough quality to beat a Leeds side who are currently in the relegation zone.<\/p>\n<p>  <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca has a little bit of a dilemma heading into Chelsea\u2019s game against Leeds United on Wednesday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,1367,4884,41513,1860,1628,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-607363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-enzo-maresca","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-josh-acheampong","13":"tag-leeds","14":"tag-moises-caicedo","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115649969557921989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}