Enzo Maresca reveals the kind of goals Chelsea will concede this season as he explains his tactics

Enzo Maresca
Photo: Lyndsay Radnedge/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Chelsea played out a 2-2 draw with Wrexham, in what was Chelsea’s first pre-season game of the summer.

Many Chelsea fans have been eager to see how the Chelsea team will play under new boss Enzo Maresca.

The first-half had Chelsea playing brilliantly, but it wasn’t impressive in the second period, with two defensive errors leading to goals.

Lesley Ugochukwu who was at fault for one of the goals ended up scoring the equaliser for Chelsea.

Enzo Maresca was asked about conceding goals through his playing philosophy, which included more patient build-up from back to front.

He responded: “Hopefully, not too many. It is one of the risks that you have trying to build from behind.”

He then added: “I have no doubt. I think you are going to concede in different ways, so you need to decide in which way you need to concede a goal.

“Sometimes teams that try to build from the back concede goals but I think you are going to score more than you concede.

“For sure, we did many things we can improve, but we started just two weeks ago. Tonight was important to start seeing the identity of the team and the identity is there.”

Enzo Maresca was also glad to see the team form an identity so early on.

He said: “In this moment, we started just two weeks ago, it’s important that us as the staff and the people can start to see the identity of the team. Tonight it was quite clear.

“For sure we are going to add more solutions.”

In the first half Chelsea used Reece James as an inverted full-back, pushing into midfield.

Explaining the playing system, Enzo Maresca added: “We tried to build with three and two. First-half with James inside and second-half with Malo [Gusto] inside.

“It does not matter about the level of the opposition; when they sit back with 11 players behind the ball, it’s always difficult to find space and solutions are not easy.”