Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca on Liverpool challenge, injuries and Thomas Tuchel as England boss
Cobham, London, UK
18/10/2024
Cobham, London, UK
18/10/2024
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00:00Okay, good afternoon. Welcome to today's press conference. If you'd like to ask a question,
00:26please raise your hand. We'll get the broadcast section started with Paul.
00:30Thank you. Hi Enzo. Enzo, what team news have you got for us? Any players returning? Any fresh
00:37injury worries after the international break? No, finally we are all available,
00:42so we have all the squad available, unless the suspended one.
00:46What goes into your thinking there, because you have to make two
00:49forced changes in a back four?
00:53Yeah, it's not a problem. I said since we started that I'm very happy with the squad.
00:59I'm very happy with the players that we are using. Since we started, we tried to share a
01:06little bit of minutes between all the competition we have. So we have two suspended players that
01:14they are not able to play, and we're going to find different players that they can play.
01:21Will Rhys James be in the squad for Sunday?
01:23He's available. Finally he's back. He worked with us all the international break,
01:29and it's good news, especially for him, because being injured is not a good feeling. So finally
01:36he's back. It's been so difficult for him, for any athlete, to continually come back and get
01:42injured again. What have you done different as a medical team, as a club, this time?
01:48Do you feel that this is different, or is it difficult to know that and predict that?
01:54No, it's always complicated when you get injury, injury, injury. Again,
02:00it's not easy, so you are always looking for a solution. Probably the solution with Rhys is the
02:10same solution we are using with Romeo and Wes, in terms of using them just once a week, one game,
02:20because probably in this moment, for different reasons, Rhys' body cannot
02:30play, for instance, twice a week. So probably one of the solutions is that we're going to try
02:38to manage him in the same way we are doing with Wes and Romeo.
02:44Given the unbeaten run that the team is on at the moment,
02:48your manager of the month, Colt Palmer, player of the month, it feels like
02:53the team is enjoying a good spell. How much are you relishing this run of
02:57tough Premier League fixtures over the next four games, starting with Liverpool at Anfield,
03:01which has always been quite a special fixture for Chelsea fans?
03:06I think it's especially a game for all the clubs. Liverpool is a nice environment, fantastic.
03:17We are excited to play this kind of game, but at the same time, I think all the games that we've
03:24played until now, no one of them has been easy. All the Premier League games, they are difficult,
03:29they are not easy. As I said, we're going to try to do our best and prepare the game
03:34in the best way we can and try to get points.
03:37Away from club football for just a moment, Thomas Tuchel is the New England head coach.
03:43I just wondered what your reaction is to that. Do you think he's a good fit for England?
03:48Just to say all the best to Thomas and nothing more. I think if people in charge decide for him,
03:56I think it's because they are convinced and I'm not the one that I can judge if it's right or
04:02wrong. The only thing I can say is all the best to him. He's tough and no more than that.
04:08Some reports that he has been in touch to really take some of your staff away,
04:13I don't know what you can say on that. If they do go, can they combine the roles?
04:20I know that one of them has been approached, that is one of the analysts. We are quite open to
04:28leave people to take their chances in case they want to take it. The other one, I think,
04:35Hilario, I heard something but there has not been any approach yet,
04:40so this is the only thing I know. But as I said, we are open-minded in terms of allowing people to
04:49take chances and also we are happy to keep people that they want to stay and the ones that they want
04:56to go, they can go. What do you think you have done to help Moises?
05:21I don't know, probably it's more a question for him. The only thing I can say is that,
05:25as I said already many times, I really believe that to improve as a team, you need to improve
05:32the players. We are trying to, not only with Moises, but with all the players,
05:39to dedicate them time, to spend time with them for extra work almost every day. At the end of
05:47the session we keep players for extra work and Moises is one of the players, so we are
05:52happy in the way he's playing. We didn't have any doubt about him as a player, as a person,
05:57and we are very happy in the way he's playing in this moment.
06:00All of your years working in management in Italy as well,
06:07have you ever come across a player like Jadon in terms of the excitement he brings to the team?
06:17Jadon is doing well, the only thing he has to do is continue in the same way,
06:21work hard every day. As I said many times, for sure he's going to help us because we really
06:27believe he's a special player, but the only way to confirm that is to work hard every day and to
06:36never be happy in terms of always being ambitious and more and more and more.
06:41Arnesto inherited a very good group of players, a very good solid foundation over there,
06:49but were you surprised with the way both Arnesto and the players managed to adapt
06:54to the new reality so quickly because it looks very promising?
06:58They are doing fantastic, very good players, very good manager, very good club,
07:04and I think they are doing a fantastic job, but it's already many years that Liverpool is there,
07:14so it's continuing to do that and I think it's something very important for them.
07:24You mentioned Reece James would only be able to play one game a week,
07:28is that for the foreseeable future or will you slowly try and build him up or is he just
07:32physically not going to be able to do that going forward?
07:37In this moment I think it can be the solution, now in the future I don't know, but if we want
07:42to build something with him in terms of physical condition, probably the solution is to allow him
07:49to go slowly, slowly and to use him once a week and then hopefully in the future we can use him
07:56more during the week, but in this moment probably we need to think to use him once a week.
08:02Is it going to be a difficult decision because obviously Mario Agosto has been playing really
08:06well as well for you now and they are both fighting for that?
08:09Yeah, it's difficult but at the same time it's nice because you know that one of them,
08:16the one that I choose, is going to do well, so this is a good feeling.
08:22So no Kukrela this week, will it be a chance for Ben Chilwell possibly to
08:27come into the squad or maybe start one?
08:29Yeah we have, I said Chil is one of our players, unfortunately in the last,
08:37unless yesterday that he joined the session, the previous day for three or four days he was ill,
08:42so he didn't get any session and we'll see how it is today and tomorrow.
08:47And Liverpool away, will this be a chance to gauge where you are
08:50in your progress coming up against a title challenger?
08:55We're going to approach the game not thinking where we are, we're going to approach the game
08:59trying to prepare the game in the best way and as I said try to get points there,
09:05but it's not this game that is going to define where we are, if we win we are,
09:12we solve all the problems and in case we lose, no it's just a process, it's just a game and as I
09:18said we're going to try to do our best and prepare the game.
09:21Would you rather play them at a different time, obviously you've had the international break,
09:24you haven't had all your players, you've had players coming back at different times
09:27from different parts of the world and then you've got to go to Anfield to play Liverpool?
09:34No, I think for them it's more or less the same, the only difference is that they play at home but
09:43we try to adapt to the fixtures.
09:47Hi Enzo, hope you're well, how would you assess your start to life as Chelsea manager now you've
09:54been here for a couple of months now?
09:56Very happy, very happy because what I expected in terms of players and level and style,
10:07I can see clearly that is there, I said already many times that no matter in this
10:13moment who is going to play you can see clear the way we want to play.
10:18For sure there are games that we could do better but also I think in this moment it's normal
10:27because we just started two, three months ago but very happy because first of all the club is,
10:34I said it's one of the best clubs in the world and I'm very excited to play and I feel very lucky
10:40to spend my time and to share my time with this squad that I'm very happy.
10:46You talked about the tough run of fixtures coming up next,
10:49throughout the next four Premier League games you face Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal,
10:55people maybe talking about it being the first real test that Chelsea have had under your
10:59leadership, what are you hoping to see from some of those big games over the next few weeks?
11:05I said I don't think that Sunday game define a little bit where we are,
11:13I think in this moment we have to be focused on things that we want to improve,
11:18that is the most important thing. As you said the first game is Liverpool, then we have
11:23two, three more games but I don't have the feeling that Nottingham was easy game,
11:29Nottingham was easy game, or Brighton was easy game, or West Ham away, or Bournemouth away was
11:34easy game. I think the Premier League is probably the best league in the world and it's because it's
11:41the toughest league in the world so every game is difficult and it will be exactly the same in
11:47the next three or four or in the next 25 games that we have.
11:50Last year I wanted to ask you about Cole Palmer, you've been asked lots about him in the last
11:54couple of weeks, but for England in the international break he was used a little
11:57bit differently, he was more defensively against Greece, Lee Kars he said he might even consider
12:03playing him at left back at some point, I wonder what you thought of the way he was used by England
12:08and whether you could see him playing in a different position for Chelsea like he has for England?
12:13I can't say the way we use Cole, then the way a different manager or Lee in this case use Cole
12:24is because probably he saw something, but in the way we are using Cole I think it's quite clear.
12:31I wanted to ask about Malo Gustaf, this season his role has changed a lot from last season,
12:44he was overlapping a lot last season under Pochettino but this season he's coming aside
12:48a lot more, how do you think he's doing?
12:51Fantastic, very happy with Malo, he's giving us many many things, many many good things,
12:58he's helping the process in the way we want to play a lot, we are happy with him, we are happy
13:04with Renato, the times that he has to play inside, but for sure Malo is doing very very well and for
13:11the AGS and how mature he is in terms of player, he's top. Do you think when Rhys James is fit and
13:20able he will be able to fit into the same sort of role as Malo? First of all he has to be fit
13:26and then slowly slowly we'll see, but now the most important thing for Rhys is that
13:31finally he's fit and we see now the way we are going to use him that fortunately as I said
13:37we have many players that are versatile and they can play in different positions.