Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti expects to be rotating his defenders in the coming months after David Luiz's arrival at the club.
Chelsea boss considers resting defenders
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti expects to be rotating his defenders in the coming months after David Luiz's arrival at the club.
The Brazilian is due to start the King's Road derby clash with rivals Fulham on Monday.
Luiz is naturally a central defender, leaving Ancelotti with a number of options with John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic also in the mix - although the Serb is also at home at right-back.
With Alex already out injured, Ancelotti hopes Luiz's arrival will help keep all his stoppers fresh - which is likely to including resting skipper Terry.
"With Luiz we can have more rotation with our players and maintain more fresh
defenders," said Ancelotti.
"Now we have lot of opportunities to choose players, give someone else a rest and to maintain every defender's fitness for the rest of the season.
"When a good player with a lot of skills comes to improve the squad, everyone is happy. Obviously everyone knows that in the top teams there is competition to play. This is normal. It's a good motivation for everyone.
"We will not have a problem in the centre of defence in the future."
Options
Ancelotti also admitted he was still deciphering his striking options following Fernando Torres' arrival - leaving him with a plethora of permutations.
"Now we have a strong squad with David Luiz and Torres. We've improved our ability and we have more power," Ancelotti told the club's
official website.
"The squad was good, but now it is even better. In attack we can choose whether to play with two up front or with the Christmas tree, it depends on the game that we want to play.
"When we play with two strikers Nicolas Anelka can be in the number 10 position, in the hole, but with one striker he can play on the right.
"Florent Malouda can also play there, and we tried last year having Frank Lampard there at the beginning of the season which was not bad.
"Malouda can also play in the Christmas tree, but I don't need to think of him as a central midfielder because we have a lot of options there."
