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