Enzo Maresca should give Chelsea player the chance to redeem himself vs Copenhagen after awful display in first leg

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Even though one Chelsea player massively struggled in the first leg against Copenhagen, he should get the opportunity to redeem himself in the upcoming second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea are back in European action on Thursday night to complete the last-16 tie against Copenhagen in the Conference League.

The Blues secured a 2-1 away victory in last week’s first leg against Copenhagen, so they’ll now be favourites to finish the job. If Enzo Maresca’s side do win, they’ll face either Molde or Legia Warszawa in the quarter-finals.

The Chelsea player ratings versus Copenhagen from the first leg highlighted a real mixture of performances in Denmark. The fans will hope for a more straightforward result on Thursday to seal safe progression in the Conference League.

• READ MORE: Chelsea predicted XI vs Copenhagen as Cole Palmer rested and defender starts first game in two months

Enzo Maresca should put Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in Chelsea XI vs Copenhagen

It’ll be interesting to see Chelsea’s starting line-up for the return leg at Copenhagen. The tie is still very much in the balance with a one-goal lead, but it’s worth remembering they travel to Arsenal three days later in the Premier League.

In terms of the Blues XI against Copenhagen, we think Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall deserves to start.

The 26-year-old midfielder has struggled for regular starts so far during his debut season, but he did play 90 minutes in the first leg. Unfortunately, he was pretty awful during the game, struggling in a variety of different roles. He lacked any real threat regardless of whether he popped up on the left, right or centrally.

Chelsea fans criticised Dewsbury-Hall’s Copenhagen display by saying they would’ve been much better with loanee Joao Felix in the side.

While Dewsbury-Hall’s contribution in the first leg was minimal, it’s worth flagging the difficulty of his stop-start season because of the manager’s team selection. He deserves a chance at redemption in this week’s second leg.

In an ideal world for Dewsbury-Hall, he’ll get a start against Copenhagen in a deeper central midfield position, rather than higher up the field as an attacking midfielder. We’d suggest a double pivot of Dewsbury-Hall and Moises Caicedo behind Cole Palmer or Christopher Nkunku in the No 10 role.

What Darren Bent said about Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in pre-season

There were certainly a few eyebrows raised in the summer at some of Chelsea’s transfer activity. In particular, Conor Gallagher being sold to Atletico Madrid and Dewsbury-Hall joining from Leicester City.

Darren Bent questioned Dewsbury-Hall joining Chelsea before the 2024/25 season kicked off. Bent told talkSPORT last August: “The signings, I mean, I like Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, but I mean to bring him in and sell Gallagher. Is it an upgrade? I am not quite sure it is.”

While Gallagher was an important first-team player in the Blues midfield last season, Dewsbury-Hall hasn’t been able to have the same kind of impact.

Our defence for Dewsbury-Hall is that he needs more consistent minutes to develop as he tries to prove himself Chelsea standard. Hopefully, that can start this Thursday against Copenhagen, but he’s got to get back to the type of quality box-to-box performances he regularly showed in Leicester colours.