Antonio Conte has hinted Chelsea captain John Terry could be sent back to the bench for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Southampton.
Terry’s return to action in Chelsea’s midweek League Cup defeat at West Ham didn’t go according to plan as the centre-back struggled in his first appearance following six weeks on the sidelines with an ankle injury.
After three successive league wins without conceding a goal, Chelsea lost 2-1 to the Hammers and Terry’s error-strewn performance in Conte’s favoured three-man defence is unlikely to have persuaded the Italian to keep him in the starting line-up this weekend.
The back three system is alien to Terry, who thrived in a four-man defence for much of his career, and the 35-year-old was beaten in the air by Cheikhou Kouyate for West Ham’s first goal.
Conte eventually switched Terry from the central position to the left of the defence at half-time.
That leaves Terry as a potential casualty if the Blues boss recalls Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses to the wing-back roles and restores Cesar Azpilicueta to central defence.
“I don’t like to talk about individual players. We win together and we lose together in every circumstance,” Conte said.
“It’s logical that John came back from injury and it’s not easy to restart and to find quickly the right shape.
“John is an important player for us, if he plays, if he doesn’t play, for the changing room, for his team-mates, for the club.
“I repeat: in this case always it’s important the team and not to think or to speak about an individual player.
“I have always to take the best decision for the team, never for an individual player.”
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