Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca publicly criticised Blues winger Noni Madueke earlier in the week, and now the England international has responded.
Maresca spoke after Chelsea beat Southampton 5-1 in the week, and he certainly didn’t hold back on his thoughts on Madueke and the reason he was dropped recently.
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Maresca said:
“With Noni I have personal relations in terms of… he can do much more. He can do much more. In the moments where he scores or assists and he is happy, and he starts to drop a bit. And the reason he was not playing – because I don’t like the way he trained. He has to understand that he has to train well every day. He has to be ambitious: if he scores one, he has to go for a second one, a third one. He has to give more assists. But overall, he’s doing great.
Madueke has responded to the criticism this week and to be honest, he has responded in the very best way possible and very maturely.
Madueke has his say
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Madueke responds to Maresca
The Chelsea attacker has praised the manager’s tough love approach.
“He is honest and truthful,” he said in words picked up by The Evening Standard last night. “He tells the truth and he is a man you can trust. That’s all you want from a coach.
“He is not necessarily a coach that is trying to be best friends with everyone, but he is a coach that is straight with everyone and fair to everyone. That’s what you need at a top club like Chelsea.”
I think that was a mistake that Mauricio Pochettino made, he tried to be everyone’s best mate at the club, when in fact some of them actually need this tough love approach and to be called out in public.
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