Enzo Maresca has told his Chelsea players that their next Premier League game against Bournemouth will be just as hard as their loss to Leeds United. The Blues’ manager was talking before the trip to the Vitality Stadium on Saturday, as his team look to bounce back from a disappointing result in the middle of the week.
Chelsea had a hard time at Elland Road on Wednesday night because the home team made the game very intense and aggressive. Maresca says that Andoni Iraola’s Cherries team plays similarly, using a lot of man-to-man pressing, which caused problems for the west London club in their last game.
During his pre-match press conference, Maresca was asked about the specific threat Bournemouth posed. He said the Blues needed to improve at dealing with high-intensity opponents:
“I think Bournemouth will be a similar game to Leeds,” the manager said. “That is where we need to be better. They are intense, Leeds was very intense. I think I said after the game that they were better than us in all the aspects and hopefully we can learn from that and be ready for tomorrow.”
The Italian coach stressed that the team was outplayed in every area against Leeds and that it was very important to learn from that right away. The game on the south coast gives Chelsea a quick chance to make up for their mistakes, but the way the hosts play means that Chelsea will have to deal with the press much better than they did in Yorkshire.
Enzo Maresca took Estevao out at halftime against Leeds for a reason
Enzo Maresca also talked about the choice to take out teenage winger Estevao Willian at the break during the loss to Leeds at the same press conference. People wondered whether the other team had deliberately targeted the young Brazilian with rough play, prompting the manager to protect him.
Maresca, on the other hand, said that Estevao was not singled out. He said that the hostile atmosphere at Elland Road is hard for a young player who is new to English football to learn from. He said:
“My feeling was not that Leeds targeted him. I think my feeling after the game is that Leeds, they target all our players. It was not just Estevao. For him, my comment after the game is because he is 18, he is from Brazil, he probably didn’t know where we were going to play.”
Maresca went into more detail about how important it is to carefully manage the young player’s minutes as he gets used to the different situations in the Premier League.