Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca blames ‘bad defensive habits’ for pre-season struggles
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has emphasize the need to address defensive issues. That plague the team last season and during pre-season.
Chelsea concede 63 goals last season, the highest among the top six teams, and have continue to struggle defensively in pre-season, conceding four goals each in losses to Celtic and Manchester City, and then two goals in a 2-1 loss to Real Madrid in their final U.S. tour friendly.
Maresca has identifie the high defensive line as a significant factor contributing to these problems. He has instructe the team to lower the defensive line by four or five meters to gain an advantage and reduce the number of goals concede.
He said: “One of my first meetings with the squad was about สมัครสมาชิก UFABET วันนี้ รับเครดิตฟรีทุกวัน the amount of goals we concede last year with the defensive line very high.
We are not working on defensive lines so high. It‘s a habit last year, or years ago, I don’t know.
“We are trying to drop the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five metres, just to have some advantage.
“Last year we concede many goals with this problem. Hopefully, we can solve it soon.”
Despite these challenges, Chelsea showe improvement in their defensive solidity in the loss to Real Madrid, limiting the European champions to only three shots on target.
This improvement provides a positive outlook as they head into their final pre-season friendly against Inter on Sunday. Chelsea will begin their Premier League campaign against champions Manchester City a week later.