"That’s on him"; "It was a funny thing to do" - Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker explain why Enzo Maresca is responsible for Chelsea's loss to Leeds

Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker have blamed Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca for the loss to Leeds United. They believe that his decision to make five changes, including three to the backline, was the main reason for the defeat.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, the two former Premier League strikers said that the manager was experimenting too much and should stick to his main XI. Shearer was quick to point that the defence was the main issue in the 3-1 defeat to Leeds United and said:

"It’s difficult when you’re changing that many in the back four. You know, I always feel there’s [some] systems or positions that should be playing on a regular basis as much as possible, [and] it has to be [with] the back four. When you’re making that many changes with it, and obviously that that’s on him tonight, in terms of he decided to do that, it went against them because they were terrible at the back."

Lineker pointed at the decision to bring in Tosin Adarabioyo and Benoit Badiashile as the key reason for the loss and said:

"Maresca made a couple of changes. Obviously I think Fofana was injured because he wasn’t on the bench either. So you lose one central defender and then Chalobah, who has been playing really well with Fofana, was moved to right back. He brought in Adarabioyo and Badiashile and it was a funny thing to do. It didn’t really work out did it?"

Chelsea remain fourth in the Premier League table after the defeat to Leeds United. They have dropped four points in their last two matches, after holding Arsenal to a draw.

John Terry slams Chelsea players after Leeds United loss

Chelsea legend John Terry has hit out at the players after the loss, saying that they failed to match Leeds United. He believes that they had the chance to comeback after Pedro Neto's goal and said on TikTok (via Metro):

"What a poor performance that was! Everything I said about Leeds away is they’re going to be aggressive, the fans are going to be up for it the fans are going to be hostile. You either have to match them or you go and take the sting out of it completely and we certainly didn’t do that in the first half. We showed glimpses in the second half when Neto comes on and gets back in the game at 2-1 but we can’t perform like that."

Chelsea face Bournemouth next in the Premier League, before traveling to face Atalanta in the UEFA Champions League.