Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca attended the pre-match press conference ahead of the fixture against Bournemouth.
Good morning – what’s the latest on team news?
Only Caicedo is suspended; there are no other new injuries.
What’s the update on Lavia?
He has a muscle issue, and we don’t know when he’ll be back.
No specific timeline?
No. We also don’t know if it’s a long-term or short-term injury.
After Wednesday’s heavy defeat, what was the players’ reaction? After reviewing the game, were you angry, frustrated, disappointed, or something else? How do you view the match?
I haven’t seen the players since the game ended because we only got back from Leeds yesterday afternoon. I’ll meet them soon, and we’ll have time to focus on tomorrow’s match. But time is limited – we have less than 48 hours to prepare for Bournemouth.
(Journalist follows up)I haven’t seen the players, but I did review, analyze, and reflect on the game myself. We made a lot of mistakes. Maybe we paid the price for that, because we played well as a team with 10 men for an hour against Arsenal.
Perhaps, to some extent, the away game against Leeds was more complex in certain aspects than other matches. As I said, we’ve watched the game and will address the issues we found in the future.
The season is indeed long, but you made 5 changes to the starting lineup. When you look back, do you regret not starting Reece James or someone else?
Most of the reason for rotation is that other players can’t play. Currently, some of our players can’t play every three days, which is why we have to rotate.
So you don’t think rotation was a problem?
Well, as I said before – you pick 11 players, and if you win, everything is fine; if you lose, that’s how it is. I’ll emphasize again: we played 60 minutes with 10 men against Arsenal, then faced Leeds three days later, so I don’t think rotation was the issue.
Do you think the team lacked leadership without Reece James in the starting lineup?
Not at all. I love this young team, I love these young players, and I love the squad I have.
We saw Chalobah at right-back, and it didn’t work. I know Fofana is a key player for you, but besides Fofana, Acheampong is the most similar in style. So when do you think Acheampong will finally get to play?
One of my biggest regrets after the game is not fielding Acheampong. We brought on Trevor, Benoît, and Tosin because we expected the opponents to play long balls to their forwards, but even so, we lost most of the first balls.
You said you want to focus on possession, but possession needs to be purposeful. Will Chelsea continue to deal with long balls in this way?
The game against Bournemouth will be similar to the one against Leeds, so we need to do better. Leeds’ intensity was very high, and they were superior to us in every aspect. We hope to learn from that and perform better tomorrow.
Last season it was the Europa Conference League, this season it’s the Champions League. So for Chelsea, are external expectations too high?
And the same for the players’ form?Of course, given our current situation, some players need to be managed well because of their past experiences. We have four or five players who need protection and rotation.
I certainly wish Reece, Pedro (Neto), Mo, and even Romeo could play all the games, but that’s impossible, so we’re trying to find other solutions.
After beating Barcelona and drawing with Arsenal, were you surprised by the heavy defeat to Leeds?
Undoubtedly, I was very surprised because I had higher expectations for their performance in all aspects. We analyzed all the details and realized we played with 10 men for an hour against Arsenal, so we did plan for rotation and anticipated difficulties.
We did face some challenges at times during the game, but not throughout the entire match.
Do you think Chelsea need more experienced players?
We always talk about experience when we drop points, but no one talks about experienced players when we beat Barcelona or draw with Arsenal.
But the defeat to Leeds was really because…
We do have experienced players; they just didn’t play against Leeds.
So you see – who was the most experienced player on the pitch against Leeds? Tosin. Did he play well? So it has nothing to do with experience.
You mentioned Estêvão’s emotional issues after the game. Do you think after his initial impressive performances, he needs some adjustments?
I don’t think Leeds specifically targeted him – they targeted the entire team. He’s a player from Brazil, so for an overseas player in his first Premier League season, it’s a process of continuous improvement.
He may not be aware of how much trouble stadiums like Leeds, Newcastle, and Liverpool can cause him, so he has to learn.
So it’s also related to his age?
That’s what we mean. It’s certainly easy to put him on the pitch and let him play all the time, but we need to manage him properly.
Why wasn’t Bonnetta in the squad?
Facundo is in good form. He played a lot at the start of the season because Cole and Liam were injured, so we gave him more playing time.
There’s really no special reason – it’s just that players have returned to this position, so our squad is a bit full.
