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Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca says he is happy with his squad but would not rule out a move for Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho in January.
Representatives for the 20-year-old were in attendance as Chelsea beat Wolves at Stamford Bridge on Monday amid reports the club hold an interest.
Maresca, who is likely to be without Mykhailo Mudryk for an extended period as the Ukrainian awaits the outcome of an FA investigation into doping, handed a Premier League debut to academy graduate Tyrique George during the 3-1 win, after being left with only three available senior wide forwards.
Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto and Jadon Sancho have shared between them two wide starting berths in Maresca’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation since Mudryk has been unavailable, while Joao Felix – whose favoured position is at number 10 – can also operate on the wings.
“I’m happy with what we have in this moment,” said Maresca of the Garnacho reports. “On the right side there’s Pedro and Noni, on the left there’s Jadon. Misha was with us, now he’s not. Tyrique is a young profile that can help us so in this moment we are OK.
“We pay attention (to the market) if something can happen. But 10 days to go, we didn’t do anything, just we called back Trev (Chalobah). We’ll see in the next 10 days if something is going to happen.”
The head coach reiterated that the club are not looking to sell Felix despite the Portugal international being limited largely to substitute appearances in the league.
“Joao is a Chelsea player, the problem unfortunately is that the manager plays most of the games with one attacking midfielder – that is Cole Palmer – and doesn’t like to play with another,” said Maresca.
Asked whether he or Christopher Nkunku could depart in January, he said: “I’m not saying that. I like both but the reason they struggle is because I play with one attacking midfielder.”
Fourth-placed Chelsea face Manchester City, who are fifth, at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday looking to open up a five-point gap on the champions in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
Maresca was employed by City, first as coach of the under-23 side then latterly as an assistant to Pep Guardiola, either side of an unsuccessful and brief spell in charge of Italian Serie B side Parma.
I don’t think if we win tomorrow that means we are ready for the title.
Enzo Maresca
“I will be always thankful to Man City, because they called me back after an Italian club sacked me after three months,” he said.
“That showed trust, confidence, faith, so I will be always thankful for these kinds of things to the club and to Pep, because we are both managers but we have a fantastic relationship in terms of friendship. This is the most important thing.”
Maresca said that victory on Saturday will not transform his young side – who are yet to beat any of last season’s top three – into title challengers.
“We are going to win games against big teams for sure, but I don’t think if we win tomorrow that means we are ready for the title.
“For sure we’re going to try and win tomorrow but it will be one more game.”
