Gary Neville has suggested that Enzo Maresca needs to shoulder some of the blame for Chelsea's 2-1 defeat against Liverpool on Sunday.

Going into the game, Enzo Maresca arguably got a lot of stuff right. For example, his decision to start Romeo Lavia was a good one.

Lavia was excellent before he was taken off in the second half, especially for someone who has barely played this season because of injury. Chelsea fans raved about Lavia's performance, showing just how terrific he was at Anfield.

However, once the match started and went on, Maresca made some questionable decisions, according to Neville.

While Neville understood that decision, the former Manchester United and England defender believes that all of Maresca's other substitutions caused the team's performance levels to deteriorate.

Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast after the game, he said: "The substitutions, because they have so many players, and you have got lots of players, maybe there is an element of Maresca which then feels like he has to make substitutions, but I just think maybe the quality, the performance, was deteriorated with the five substitutions.

"I thought Chelsea were at their best with the starting XI. Maybe you could argue that Sancho going off at half-time, one way or the other, doesn't really count for much, but I just felt as though maybe the substitutions didn't help them."

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Neto was one of the substitutes who came on, replacing Sancho, and Frank Lampard now wants to see Neto start Chelsea's next Premier League game against Newcastle United.

Enzo Maresca had to make changes against Liverpool Some of the changes that Maresca made at Anfield were practically enforced. The 44-year-old took Lavia and James off, needing to be extremely cautious with them.

The two Chelsea stars have had some serious injury problems over the last year and only recently returned to full fitness.

There was not much that Maresca could do with those two, while Sancho also probably needed to come off after a difficult 45 minutes against Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The winger failed to create much during his time on the pitch. Still, it did feel like Chelsea lost momentum and their way a bit after all of those substitutions. It is something for Maresca to bear in mind going forward.

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