Maresca on Chelsea's 2-1 Newcastle win

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Maresca on Chelsea's 2-1 Newcastle win  27/10/2024  Stamford Bridge, London, UK

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00:00OK, good evening. If you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand and we'll look to get

00:12around as many as possible. Ciarán, do you want to get us started?

00:15I know we've talked about Cole Palmer before, but Cole's just been talking on TV about comparisons

00:21to Gianfranco Zola, and he actually said, I know he's an icon on FIFA, so he must have

00:26been good. Does that kind of remind us how young this guy is and what he's doing?

00:31This is exactly what I was telling you, that I don't think Cole knows Gianfranco. But they

00:38are, to be honest, they are quite similar in terms of quality, in terms of seeing things

00:44that the rest they don't see. I'm from Italy, so I know Gianfranco quite well.

00:51I mean, that's very flattering to Cole, or is it getting more flattering to Gianfranco

00:57to be compared with each other?

00:59No, but I don't think that we can compare both. The only thing I can say is that both

01:07they are Gianfranco and Cole is still a quality player.

01:13Is the best thing about Cole the fact that pressure doesn't seem to be getting to him?

01:17Because he spoke on TV about people saying he's unstoppable as well.

01:21No, I said many times, for me the best thing from Cole is that he never changes. I had him

01:26three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, I don't remember, and he's exactly in

01:30the same way. At the end, the reason why people come to the stadium is to see a player like

01:35him, so they pay to see that kind of player, and we are happy to have him.

01:44How well do you think that works in terms of the left defence today?

01:49No, I think it works top in terms of we try to do something. We move Rhys in the left

01:55side, and we also move for the first time of the season Cole in the left pocket. That

01:59was his first game, and the reason was to try to attack in that side, and also for more

02:06reason to have Malo in the right pocket, and I think at the end it works very well.

02:13Rhys there had to go a lot of defending towards the end, and seemed to show the kind of personality

02:18you were talking about from him in the group.

02:21Yeah, but I said many times, I spoke with Rhys many times since we started the season,

02:27even when he was injured. I really love and I really like Rhys, but the only thing I was

02:33telling the other day, and I repeat once again today, is that from the captains I expected

02:39more, so from Rhys and from all the guys that sometimes they are captains, it's because

02:46you are captain for a reason, and you have to show every day. And then inside the pitch,

02:52Rhys is top player.

02:56I was going to ask about leadership actually, whether or not a leader isn't necessarily

03:01somebody who talks a lot, or whether somebody like Cole Palmer leads by what they do on the pitch.

03:08No, I think you can improve if you are not the guy that is always talking, and is always

03:16you know, help, these kind of things, it's because you are in the way you are, and this

03:22is almost impossible to change. But what you can do, because you know that, is to work

03:27on that, and to try to improve. So with Rhys, with Cole, with all the squad, and I said

03:33the other day, because we are quite young, we need to build leaders. And also Levi was

03:41quite, how do you say, silent, quite silent, and then now he's always talking. So sometimes

03:50when you don't know, you have to build a leader. That doesn't mean that you are going to change

03:55people, because no. But if they can improve on that, and they can do something more, it's good.

04:01Without wishing to take the gloss off a performance and a great result, the goalkeeper, your goalkeeper

04:07today, there were some kind of weird moments, some of his distribution of the ball was not

04:13perhaps going where he was quite hoping it would go.

04:17Yeah, but he also did so many good. At the end it's football, and I'm the guy to ask

04:26Robby to do that, and Robby is going to do that. In the moment that he stops doing that,

04:30he's not going to play. And if he makes a mistake, it's not Robby's problem, it's my

04:34problem, it's my mistake, because I asked that to Robby. So I'm very happy with Robby

04:39in the way he's playing. Building from the back, all the goal kicks that we have, and

04:44he passed the ball to Pedro, and then Noni, that kind of ball that gives us many chances

04:49to attack. But sometimes you make mistakes, but it's not going to change the way we are

04:55going to play.

05:06Yeah, there are games, especially today's one, that if you do a basketball game, they

05:11destroy us. Because Newcastle, they are strong, they are good, they have some good players

05:16in transition. So the reason why I was telling calm is because this game is that kind of

05:22game that before you attack you need to make 15, 20, 25 passes. If you want to attack with

05:26two passes, you are long distance, they recover the ball and they can create a cause problem.

05:33So the reason why I was shouting all the game, calm, calm, calm, make passes, is because

05:38against them, if you do an up-and-down game, they destroy us, they destroy every team.

05:49No, I think Romeo and Moi, they both did well, Enzo and was inside. But overall, I'm very

05:56happy with the performance today, because for some moments on the ball we were unbelievable.

06:01Some good combination, the way we prepared the game, the plan was exactly there. And

06:05off the ball, they fight together, they show the desire to win, to get three points, and

06:10this is important.

06:23Yeah, but the problem is that if you attack quick, then you're going to concede a quick

06:28attack. And it's not our idea, it's not our fault. I think today, Nono on one side,

06:33Pedro on the other side, Cole in the pocket, Malo in the pocket, Nico there. They are all

06:38so good, when we are all together, making passes, passes, passes, we arrive in the last

06:42third and we can create chances and goals.

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