Despite a big win over Southampton in midweek, in his press conference today Enzo Maresca revealed that he was “upset” by some aspects of his team’s play in the 5-1 victory.
“I was upset in the first 15 or 20 minutes because we were wrong in the way we were pressing. Until the first or second goal, I called some players to the bench, we needed to change,” Maresca explained.
“If you don’t press Southampton man-to-man, you struggled to recover the ball. We scored five and we could score more but we are very happy scoring five.”
It’s true that there was some very dodgy defending that let Southampton equalise, but that was really the only hairy moment in the match, which soon turned into a total cruise, despite the 7 changes to the usual lineup made by Maresca.
Ange Postecoglou at the Vitality Stadium. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
### Maresca wary of “fantastic” Tottenham threat
Overall, Maresca couldn’t deny his team were ahead of expectations:
“For sure. I said in terms of points and the way we want to play on and off the ball, I was convinced 100 per cent we would reach this moment but not so early.”
But despite all that, the Chelsea coach wasn’t getting carried away, and is well aware of the threat that Tottenham will provide on Sunday, despite a defeat to Bournemouth in midweek:
“They have very good players and a very good manager. What kind of problems they have, I don’t know. But they are a fantastic team. You see the results; two weeks ago they beat City, so they are a very good team.”
Aston Villa are the biggest scalp he’s taken so far this season – let’s hope he can change that fact this weekend with what could be a very significant win over our old rivals Tottenham.