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Enzo Maresca has stated that Romeo Lavia will miss the FIFA Club World Cup semifinal as Chelsea prepare to face Fluminense. The Belgian midfielder missed the quarterfinal win over Palmeiras due to a small muscle injury.
Speaking to the media ahead of the semifinal, Maresca said Lavia is not training with the first team. He confirmed that the 21-year-old is in individual training, but will not feature on Tuesday, July 8. He said (via the BBC's Nizaar Kinsella):
"Romeo is training already but is unfortunately not training with us so is not ready for tomorrow."
Maresca has heaped praise on Lavia in the past, calling him one of the most important players in his squad. He claimed that Chelsea play better when the Belgian is on the pitch and said (via the club website) in May:
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"You can see that we are a better team with Romeo. Unfortunately, he has been injured for most of the season. Probably in this moment [earlier in the season], the difference between us and more clubs is that we unfortunately had many important players for us who were injured, and Romeo was one of them. No doubt Wes Fofana was another, and we had Nico out for two months."
Apart from Lavia, Chelsea are also without Liam Delap and Levi Colwill for the semifinal. The new signing and the defender picked up their second bookings in the quarterfinal win and will have to sit out of the match against Fluminense.
Reece James, who was pulled out of the Palmeiras clash after the warmup, is back in training and in line to face Fluminense.
Enzo Maresca on Chelsea's plan for the attack
Enzo Maresca has confirmed that João Pedro will be battling for the #9 spot with Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap. He wants all his forwards to score 10-12 goals instead of relying on one of them to get 40+ goals in a season.
The Italian tactician said (via Football London):
"For sure, Joao, Liam and Nico know exactly the No.9s at Chelsea . In my idea, I prefer to have all five players scoring 10 or 12 goals each rather than one striker scoring 40 goals. We expect more goals next season from our attacking players. Nico is okay. Game-plan for tomorrow? Every game we try to adapt a little bit ourselves in terms of finding solutions. Tomorrow we are going to do exactly the same."
Chelsea also have Marc Guiu in their squad, but the youngster has been linked with a move away on loan.
