Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has responded to Wayne Rooney’s criticism of his squad rotation.

Maresca tends to rotate his line-up for every game – a move Rooney recently criticised.

Maresca has now responded to the Manchester United legend.

He said: “I’ve said many times: we live in a time when everyone can express their opinion – and that’s fine, I totally respect that. But I also said after the Qarabag game that since I joined the club, it’s been part of my approach to rotate players. And no one complained when we didn’t win the match.

“I understand that no one was against it then. But when it comes to players like Andrey Santos, a Brazilian international, Jorrel Gato, a Dutch international, or Estevao, also a Brazilian international, it’s not just rotation.

“They are good, talented, young, and if they are young, they need to be given the chance to make mistakes in order to become better. I think the same was true for Josh Achimpon. But again, I understand that when the team doesn’t win, they always blame the rotation or the defence.”