LONDON: Rafa Benitez (pictured) will continue to rotate his Chelsea players as they bid to deal with a fixture pile-up and rebound from two consecutive defeats, the club’s interim manager said yesterday.
The Spaniard left out senior players John Terry and Frank Lampard for Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final defeat by Manchester City but says he will stick to his guns amid growing pressure to retain a settled side for their remaining matches this season.
“We have had a lot of games and still have another nine or 10 to play,” Benitez told reporters.
“All the players are important and will be important until the end. We have to manage the squad and we will do it until the end.
“Managing the squad is part of our job and you can see that still we have some legs and determination to win games.”
Sunday’s clash was Chelsea’s sixth in 16 days and they are set for a busy run-in with seven Premier League games remaining and a two-legged Europa League semi-final against Swiss club Basel also still to play.
Benitez’s men visit west London neighbours Fulham today with the fight for a top-four Premier League finish and Champions League qualification poised to go to the wire.
Chelsea are fourth in the table, level on points with Tottenham Hotspur in fifth and dark horses Everton lurking three points further adrift in sixth.
The European champions will be hoping to improve on poor away form.
Chelsea are without a win in the Premier League away from Stamford Bridge since beating Stoke City in the middle of January.
“It was quite good before, we improved our home form and now have to improve away. We haven’t played that many away,” Benitez added yesterday in the press conference. REUTERS
