Maresca very happy with 'complete' performance on the path of improvement
Today at 02:24 PM
Post-match thoughts from the boss after Chelsea's 3-0 win at the London Stadium over West Ham United
One very effective way to win a game of football is to score early in both halves to set the tone, and then control proceedings the rest of the time.
And that's precisely what Chelsea did on a lovely Saturday afternoon in East London, scoring inside the first few minutes of either half, and adding another (and it could've been a lot more) to make things even more comfortable. While our control wasn't perfect and neither was our counter-attacking flow, by and large, it was a solid performance away from home in a stadium that's not been happy hunting grounds in recent years.
Head coach Enzo Maresca was suitably pleased. Not overly, but just enough.
"Especially with the performance and the three points, that is the most important thing. Also, a clean sheet, so it has been a complete performance. We are very happy."
"[The] players are buying the idea and the different style. Since I arrived, that has been top. The way we are working off the ball [...] has been top. If we understand that we need that and with the desire, we can probably build something important."
"[The] result and the points are always important in our business. For me, the main target in this moment is to see how we progress as a team. We are improving many things. Today, we could attack better and we could defend better but especially we can manage the game much, much better. Sometimes we need to give more passes and keep the ball but we are in a rush and trying to attack immediately. Overall, we deserved to win the game."
"[We] are on the right path, the right direction. But this is a long journey. Because we won today and we are in a good moment, it looks like everything is fine but not everything is fine. We could attack better, we could defend better, but it is just a matter of time. The most important thing is how the players buy [into the idea] since we have worked together."
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
While Maresca sees plenty of room for improvement, and fairly enough, he also saw his players execute a gameplan that was crafted specifically for this match, paying off the time and effort put into preparation both on an off the training ground.
Surely nothing makes a coach happier than seeing his ideas, general and specific, put into real world application by his players on the pitch.
"[The players] want to see things, they want to learn. And probably we have been a bit intense with video sessions, but this is the moment you need to insist [on that].
"[West Ham] since the start of the season, they played almost all the games building with three players. [But in some games] they drop one midfielder to build with five, like today. We expected that [and] accepted a 3-v-2 to them [in the middle, because] we knew that Wan-Bissaka on one side and Emerson [on the other, would be] very high, so in the moment we recover the ball, we can use that space, like the first goal.
-Enzo Maresca; source: NBC Sports
Attacking the space behind advanced wing-backs isn't a groundbreaking idea, but recognizing the opponents' weakness and getting your players to exploit it is a measure of success for any coach.
And Saturday was indeed a successful day for everyone in Blue.
