WHICH PLAYER SHOULD I CHANGE? | Maresca hits back at calls for more Chelsea substitutes
Must proved a very frustrating end to the afternoon for you, and what does it tell you about your Chelsea team?
No, yeah, as I said, I just said that probably we did enough to win the game today. Between the first half and second half, I think we created chances enough to win the game, but in football, you need to be clinical; otherwise, the game is always open, especially in this stadium. You know, any transition, any corner boosts the energy for them, but unfortunately at the end, we conceded. But overall, I think today we did enough to win the game.
No, it's two weeks ago, three weeks ago, we were talking about a title race. Now, I never thought that we knew that Newcastle, Aston Villa will be there; City will be for sure there. So for me, it's not about the table; it's just to see how we can improve things. Today, the performance for me was very good on the ball; off the ball... At this moment of the season, I knew that it was going to happen in any season for any team that you have some moments that you are not able to win games. The reason why I think every game is different. Sometimes it's for one reason, sometimes it's for a different reason, but today, if I have to decide the reason why we didn't win the game, I think it's just trying to be clinical when you have the chance to kill the game because two-nil, probably the game is finished. But if you continue to be, you know, open, open, open, at the end, you are going to concede some transition, some corner, and you can concede.
Okay, I said because now we change. I ask you which player was to change today for...
Yeah, no, no, no, but it just... I know that it is my job, but sometimes when we do some changes, it's because there is one that is not doing enough, and we change for another one. Oh, it's all simple because the one that is playing is tired or he's not pressing good. And today, I think the eleven that were on the pitch, they were all good. Pedro was very good, Jayden was very good, Niik was good, Cole was good, Eno was good, Moy was good, Josh was good...
I mean, I make changes for change; I don't like to make change when there is no reason why. And the reason why we changed Niik is because he was pressing, was a bit tired—10 minutes, 15 minutes to go. Mark is fresh, new energy, and exactly the same with Jaydon. So this is the reason why.
No, for me, it was... All the players for me, they were good today. If I have to decide for one, I think for sure Josh was our best player because of the age, because it was the first game. And the reason why is because I already said with you many times that Josh, for me, can be a top player for this club. But he is on the right path, the right moment. With young players, you have to decide in which moment, and we decided today because we saw that he's ready. Today, I think he showed how good he is.
Now, again, because of the age, he has to slow down, work hard, and take the next chance.
Yeah, even if we don't decide to buy players or sell players because we win or lose games, or because Josh showed that we knew already that Josh is good enough, but probably with West and Ben O' injury, we'll see if something is going to happen.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Now, fortunately, they just said to me that after September, this is the first week that we have an entire week now. So we have a chance to work this week and then prepare the FA Cup game and then again with the Premier League.
Yeah, but it's going to be like this until the end. We can be fifth or we can be sixth in the table; we can be third, second again, hopefully. But at the end, I think it's going to be until the last two, three games. And then when we are right there, we see...
Mal.
No, no, first of all, I always said that the important thing is to create chances because if you create chances, it means that you are doing the right things. And then you have to take those chances. I think if you think about the Ipswich game, we had again so many chances. Chan is there sometimes. It's football! Sometimes you create and you score; sometimes you create one chance and you score one, and sometimes you need to create ten to score two.
At this moment, it's like this. What we can do is try to be even more intense during the week when we prepare for the game. Even if the intensity or the intention of the players is top, for sure it's something that we need to improve, thinking that we are one of the two or three best teams in scoring goals at this moment.
Romeo, hopefully...
Yeah, hopefully, in the next game, he can be already involved more. Yeah, but for strikers, sometimes all the chances they have, they score. Sometimes they have chances that they don't score. The important thing is that Nio, today once again, I think as you said, he had two, three clear chances. So that means that he's there, he's ready, and hopefully next time he can be a bit more lucky. But overall, I think Nico did a good game today. Thank you.