Maresca pleased with Chelsea form ahead of Brighton

NicheSportMedia

Maresca pleased with Chelsea form ahead of Brighton  27/09/2024  Cobham training centre, Surrey, UK

Transcript

00:00Can you give us an injury update against Romelu Lukaku?

00:28No, Romelu is available for tomorrow. The only one is Rhys.

00:33So he's back and available?

00:35Yes.

00:36Available do you think to play the whole game or start?

00:40We'll see. We'll see. We have one more session now and then we decide.

00:44But the important thing is that finally he's back.

00:48And Rhys still no real update?

00:50Yeah, exactly.

00:52So obviously good performance in the week.

00:55Have you had any changes to your side?

00:58Nobody really did themselves any harm in terms of making a shout

01:02knocking on your door saying I want to start this weekend?

01:06No at the moment.

01:09No, as I said after the last game,

01:14I think it's a good thing for me to have some doubt.

01:18That means that they are doing well.

01:21And they get the chance when we give to them.

01:24So this is something important.

01:26And as I said, it's something that we need to continue to do it.

01:30Because I think we create the right culture in terms of team,

01:38compete and this is important.

01:42I guess one of the biggest headaches is deciding between Nick and Chris up front?

01:48Yeah, it's one of them.

01:50But I think Pedro did well the other day.

01:53Mischa did very well the other day.

01:55All of them to be honest.

01:59Benoit did well.

02:00Axel again did well.

02:02Renato.

02:03I mean Cesare for me, he played a fantastic game the other day.

02:08It's important that when there is a chance,

02:11as I said, even if it's five minutes or ten minutes or half an hour or from the start,

02:16they give everything.

02:18So it's important.

02:20Check with Brighton whether they mind you fielding 22 players?

02:24Say again, sorry?

02:25Sorry, don't worry.

02:27I said check with Brighton whether they mind if you field 22.

02:31They don't chill well.

02:34You said you didn't say anything good about him after the games.

02:41You played half a match.

02:42You said you tried to give him some more minutes, some more matches.

02:45Does that include in the Premier League as well?

02:48Yeah, in the moment that we need, for sure.

02:51Why not?

02:52I said already many times and I will say again,

02:58in the moment that Chile is with us,

03:01he's one of the Chelsea players and he's one of our players.

03:07And if we need, we give him a chance in minutes.

03:11When you were advising him in the transfer window to leave,

03:16do you now think that that was a mistake?

03:18Were you making a mistake?

03:19Could he be important to you?

03:21We all make mistakes.

03:23Probably yes, probably no.

03:24I don't know.

03:25Simply I said many times I'm here to take decisions

03:28and sometimes they are good decisions, sometimes they are not good.

03:31But the only thing I can say is that there is not any bad intention from me.

03:38It's just to see things and to try to think about the good thing

03:46and the best thing for the club.

03:48If you win tomorrow, that will be four wins on the bounce in all competitions.

03:53Most of them in the Premier League.

03:55All wins in September, often withdraw.

03:59That's manager of the month territory.

04:04The focus is just about the game.

04:06I think it's the most important thing.

04:07As you said, if we are able to win,

04:10it's also important to continue with that momentum.

04:15This is the only thing that I really care.

04:17The rest, I will be happy, as I said,

04:20to share finally three points with the fans at home.

04:25But yes, this is the most important thing.

04:27For you personally, you spoke about where the team are

04:30based on what you were hoping for at the last news conference.

04:33For you personally, are you surprised?

04:36Has it been easier than you thought it was going to be?

04:38Oh, easy.

04:40No, no, no.

04:41Not easy.

04:45As we said, we have already two weeks, I think two or three weeks,

04:48where there is no noise around the team.

04:51This is important.

04:54No, I think it's not easy.

04:58It's what I expected in terms of hard work,

05:02but at the same time nice, exciting, so happy.

05:06We'll go to John.

05:08How important have the last few weeks been

05:10with the win at Bournemouth, the win at West Ham,

05:12just creating that belief, I suppose,

05:14inside the club, outside the club,

05:16that you're actually now heading in the right direction?

05:20It's always important to win games

05:22because it gives us energy, confidence, trust.

05:27But sometimes, even when you don't win,

05:33you play some good games,

05:35so you have to focus on that, that it's important.

05:39And sometimes it happens on the other side,

05:41that sometimes you win games, but probably you don't deserve it,

05:45and you think that everything is fine.

05:46That is not fine.

05:47But the main thing, as I said in this moment,

05:52for sure the results are important,

05:55but it's to see how we progress,

05:57how we are able to change players,

05:59but the identity and the idea is still there.

06:02This has to be, in this moment, the main target.

06:05And then for sure that we're going to win games.

06:09Have you seen within the squad,

06:11the players growing over the last two or three weeks,

06:14learning what you're trying to teach them,

06:17and how long is it going to take for all of them to come together to play?

06:21How do you actually want them to play?

06:23Since day one, they have been open-minded

06:26and they are trying to understand what we want from them.

06:30So this happened since day one.

06:33And then I think there is no limit in terms of,

06:39OK, we need three months to learn everything.

06:42No, we are going to continue to learn every day.

06:47For sure that learning things we can improve.

06:50This is for sure.

06:51But there is not a moment that we say,

06:53OK, we need six months to learn.

06:56And then, no, no, no.

06:58It's a work in progress every day.

07:01We can add things, we can improve.

07:03And this is the only thing that we need to be focused on.

07:06What are your biggest challenges keeping the players happy?

07:09Cristiano Ronaldo has scored a hat-trick on Tuesday night.

07:12He's got six goals this season but probably won't start tomorrow.

07:15How do you go about dealing with him?

07:18Be honest. Be honest with him and with all of them.

07:22I said many times, probably I told them since day one,

07:25we cannot play with seven, eight attacking players.

07:28Otherwise there is no defensive balance.

07:31So now in this moment, as you said,

07:33Nico played in the Premier League, scored two goals.

07:37Antonio played the other day, scored three.

07:39This is good because no one of them can drop.

07:43That means that the other one can have more chances.

07:46Thinking and knowing that it's impossible for them

07:49to be at the same level for all season,

07:51because it's not possible.

07:54But it's important that they compete with each other.

07:57And they are ready when we give them minutes.

08:01You just mentioned the defensive balance and stability in the team.

08:06Your team have kept three clean sheets now, two in the Premier League.

08:10I think last time Chelsea kept three straight clean sheets in the Premier League

08:14was back in 2023.

08:16How important is that?

08:18Do you see that confidence in your back line?

08:20Absolutely it's important.

08:22It's important because we don't concede.

08:27That means when you don't concede you have more chance to win,

08:30in case you are able to score.

08:33But it's also important the feeling that we have.

08:37I said we conceded against City two goals,

08:41but we didn't concede many chances.

08:43City is a team that every game they have a big amount of chances,

08:47a big amount of goals.

08:49The other game probably...

08:52Wolves we conceded two goals,

08:55but in the second half we didn't concede any shots.

08:58I think also defensively we need to improve many, many things.

09:03But we are in the right direction.

09:05That means that every game we are not going to concede.

09:09Because this is not real.

09:11For sure we are going to concede goals,

09:13but it's important that we improve the concept between all the teams.

09:18When we speak about the defensive line,

09:22we used to think that we are talking just about the defensive players,

09:27but it's not.

09:28I said after the Western game,

09:30probably the best player defending was Cole and Nico.

09:33The way they started pressing, high pressing,

09:35and gave us a chance in behind to manage better the situation.

09:39So it's about all the teams.

09:41Mark Licoria, you started in all the Premier League games this season.

09:45I just wanted to ask you your thoughts on how important it is to your team

09:49and the way that your team plays.

09:51Mark is very important.

09:53Mark has something that sometimes you struggle to find in players.

10:01Mark is good and he's making good also the players around him.

10:07Because he's a guy that is always talking,

10:09he's always demanding.

10:10And when you are able in a team to have five, six, seven players like Mark,

10:15that they are always talking and improving the rest, the other players,

10:20it's something important.

10:21So I'm very happy with Mark.

10:25And finally for me, obviously it's a case of Brighton tomorrow.

10:28They've got a manager in Sadio Hürtel who is just 31 years of age

10:33and the team aren't beating so far this season in the Premier League.

10:36So what have you made of the work you've done at this club?

10:38Fantastic.

10:39She's doing a fantastic job.

10:43I watched also some games from last year when he was in the other team in Germany.

10:49And you can see clearly the idea.

10:52I also think that when you join a club where the previous manager

10:58was playing more or less the same idea, that helps a lot.

11:02So my big friend De Zerbi was there.

11:08So probably they are continuing also with the same style

11:13and it's something that helps a lot.

11:16Okay, final questions. We'll go to Ruben and then Roman.

11:19Hi, Edwin.

11:20Chelsea play on quite a tight pitch, quite small compared to some of the other teams in the league.

11:25With the style of play you're trying to bring to the club,

11:28do you ideally want to play on a bigger, more expansive pitch?

11:34I think at the end more or less.

11:36They are all the same.

11:37Sometimes probably the pitch looks big when we are in the right position

11:43and when we don't move a lot.

11:45Sometimes we want to move a lot and we make the pitch small.

11:50So I think it depends more on how we behave than the pitch.

11:56Tosin looked really good when he came off the bench at Bournemouth

11:59and last week at West Ham.

12:00How impressed have you been with him since he's come to the club?

12:03Very impressed.

12:04I know Tosin since City.

12:06I know from them.

12:08Very impressed with him, especially the way he behaves inside the pitch, outside the pitch.

12:14He's always there.

12:15He's one of the leaders of the changing room.

12:17We are very delighted and very happy with him.

12:20We'll finish with Roman.

12:21Hi, Enzo.

12:23I don't know if you've seen the stats,

12:25but Moises Caicedo has made more tackles than any other midfielder in the previous league.

12:30Before you came, people were like,

12:32oh, he's not a 100 million player.

12:34There were doubts if he was that good.

12:37So you're training him.

12:38How good is he and how much more can he get?

12:43He's a top player.

12:46He's very good.

12:48But as all the top players, he can improve things and for sure he can improve.

12:52The way he's playing in this moment is fantastic.

12:55Then about the price, it's not my problem.

13:00It's the market that sometimes decides the price.

13:04But most of the time, because clubs pay a lot of money for players,

13:09we expect that that kind of player will be always the best or these kind of things.

13:14But it's not like this.

13:16He has to enjoy, he has to play, he has to work hard.

13:20But the most important thing, he has always to be happy and enjoy football

13:24and don't think about price and these kind of things because it's not his problem.

13:28If a club pays for a player, it's because the club decided to pay that amount of money.

13:33It's not because the player asked.

13:35If you want me, you have to pay this money.

13:37It's an agreement between clubs.

13:39So for all the clubs, it's the same.

13:41But the player in this case, just enjoy, just play football.

13:44That is what Moy does very good.

13:47And this is the most important thing.

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