Calum McFarlane explains why he dropped Jorrel Hato for Chelsea’s win vs Leeds

However, the Chelsea interim manager still decided to drop the defender at Wembley.

Chelsea have absolutely dominated Leeds! What has Calum McFarlane done differently to Liam Rosenior? 🤔

Calum McFarlane wanted Tosin Adarabioyo’s height

McFarlane will be hoping that Hato does not take his decision personally. The 40-year-old only left him out of the side because he wanted to include Tosin Adarabioyo to deal with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Leeds’ threat from set pieces.

Adarabioyo stands at 6’5″, making him Chelsea’s tallest defender and the perfect player to combat Calvert-Lewin in the air.

When asked about his decision to start the 28-year-old over Hato in his post-match press conference, McFarlane told The Standard and other outlets: “It’s a really good question, and it was one of the most difficult decisions in the preparation for this game, because Jorrel Hato has been probably our best player over the last five, six games.

“But I decided to go with Tosin, mainly down to the Dominic Calvert-Lewin threat, and probably being the best match-up to defend that. Also, set-pieces is a massive part of their game.”

Chelsea fans would have been fearing the worst after learning about Adarabioyo’s inclusion. When the Blues played Leeds back in December, the former Fulham man put in arguably his worst performance in a Chelsea shirt.

Adarabioyo was at fault for Leeds’ third goal as Daniel Farke’s side went on to win 3-1.

However, he was able to redeem himself at Wembley on Sunday, putting in an excellent performance and helping Chelsea to keep a clean sheet.

It will now be interesting to see what McFarlane does next Monday when Chelsea take on Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Having finally got back to winning ways, McFarlane may not want to change a formula that is working. And again, Adarabioyo played so well against Leeds.

Hato, though, never deserved to be dropped, with it only being a height thing that kept him out of the side.

McFarlane could always go with Hato and Adarabioyo in central defence, while Trevoh Chalobah drops down to the bench. But the England international also had a good game at Wembley, so that would also be unfair.

It is a good problem to have after a period when most of Chelsea’s defenders had been underperforming. Whoever starts, hopefully they can guide the team to another clean sheet.