Maresca admits Chelsea “conceded five goals because of Robert’s mistakes” – but still backs Sanchez | OneFootball

It wasn’t an easy press conference for Enzo Maresca today.

The Chelsea manager had a lot of bad news to bring to the table about injuries, and on top of that he was asked about the bad form of some of his starters.

He brushed aside the criticism of Enzo Fernandez, then did something similar with Robert Sanchez.

Maresca brushes off Sanchez criticism

Robert Sanchez lobbed by Erling Haaland. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

The Chelsea goalkeeper was sent off in their league game against Manchester United a week ago, but will return for tomorrow’s game against his old team Brighton.

Maresca has always defended him (he doesn’t have much choice) and did so again when questioned about the regular errors from the keeper which lead to goals:

“I think Robert for a long period, a long time, he was very good with us. The last part of last season, the beginning of this season, he was fantastic,” Maresca said.

“He made a mistake against Man United, and recognises that. I said many times, a keeper makes mistakes, it’s like a defender or a striker, it’s exactly the same. We are happy with Robert, we are happy with Filip [Jorgensen], both of them. And there’s not any problem with Robert.”

Manager backs his keeper to learn from mistakes

The decision to race out of his goal and bring down a striker cost Sanchez a red and reduced Chelsea to ten men after just 5 minutes last week. Is the manager confident his keeper is reliable?

“[The red card mistake] can happen, it can happen. Also because it’s a quick decision, but as you said, we concede probably five goals because of Robert’s mistakes [last season], but how many goals we avoid because of Robert’s saves? I think many. So no, it’s not any problem.”

When confronted with the simple question of if he thought the 27 year old was improving, Maresca replied “absolutely, yes.”