Enzo Maresca questions Chelsea star's work-ethic despite goal and assist during win
12/04/2024 05:55 PM
Enzo Maresca has called for Noni Madueke to be ‘much, much, much better’ despite his starring role in Chelsea’s latest win.
The winger scored and provided an assisted in a 5-1 victory away to Southampton on Wednesday night.
However, his work-ethic was questioned by the Blues boss after the match.
Madueke teed up Christopher Nkunku to re-establish the visitors’ lead after Joe Aribo cancelled out Axel Disasi’s opener.
The England international then added a goal of his own to double their lead before half time.
He was hauled off in the 72nd minute, though, before Cole Palmer and his replacement Jadon Sancho added further gloss to the scoreline.
Maresca was not entirely satisfied with the 22-year-old’s performance.
Speaking after the win, the Italian explained: “Noni can do much more. When he scores and assists and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit.
“The reason he was not playing is because of the way he was training.
“When he scores one, he needs to keep trying to score and assist. Noni needs to understand he has to work more and he can be much, much, much better.”
Madueke’s exploits at St. Mary’s have taken his tally for the season to five goals and two assists in 13 Premier League appearances.
It comes after he also turned provider in the win over Aston Villa on Sunday.
Following a second victory in four days, Madueke told talkSPORT’s Ian Abrahams: “I could have scored a hat-trick today, quite easily.
“But a goal and an assist is okay, I’ll take that. I’ll go into the next game and try and help my team.”
As for playing under Maresca, he added: “He’s been great for me.
“Not just in terms of the things I like to do, in quotation marks, score goals and beat players, but even in the less pretty parts of football, the defensive part, being reliable.
“He’s helped me a lot with that, so yes, credit to him.”
Wednesday’s win saw Maresca’s side cut the gap to leaders Liverpool down to seven points after the Reds were held to a 3-3 draw at Newcastle.
Meanwhile, they could reduce the deficit even further on Sunday afternoon.
The Blues visit Tottenham in a London derby before travelling to Kazakhstan to take on Astana in the Europa Conference League in midweek.
