"I don't like the way he trained" – Enzo Maresca wields new authority with stinging criticism of 2 assist winger

12/04/2024 07:33 PM

Enzo Maresca was taking a pretty straightforward press conference after the win over Southampton, but then slid in a direct criticism of one of his players to make things a lot more interesting.

"With Noni I have personal relations in terms of… he can do much more. He can do much more. In the moments where he scores or assists and he is happy, and he starts to drop a bit. And the reason he was not playing – because I don't like the way he trained. He has to understand that he has to train well every day. He has to be ambitious:  if he scores one, he has to go for a second one, a third one. He has to give more assists. But overall, he's doing great.

The compliment sandwich is pretty clear is nicely deployed as a way of softening it. But saying someone isn't training well and lacks ambition is pretty strong even if say they're "doing great."

"I don't like how he trains!"

Enzo Maresca CRITICAL of Chelsea star after Saints thrashing

https://t.co/D1Md2ooX6rpic.twitter.com/GscjoKfZ0w

— Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) December 4, 2024

Enzo wields new power to make a serious point

This is a really important step for Maresca, and shows the authority he now feels. At the start he was wisely very tentative in expressing his opinions. Now, on the back of an evening where he had the whole away end signing his name, and an impressive run of results, he feels empowered to call out individuals as a method to raise their level.

His management of Noni has been great – played him when he was good, dropped him when he slowed down, then restored him and got results today. Hopefully the winger takes this on board, ups his level in training (we can only assume what Maresca is saying is accurate) and gets even better.

The rest of the squad will be sitting up and taking notice.