Maresca explains Chelsea star’s surprising lack of minutes at Club World Cup | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has urged patience with midfielder Andrey Santos, who has struggled for game time during the Club World Cup.

The Blues play Benfica in Charlotte on Saturday in the round of 16 of the competition.

But a big talking point in the competition so far has been a surprising lack of minutes for Santos, who impressed on loan at Strasbourg last season.

The Brazilian made his competitive debut for the club in the win over Esperance, when he was given 23 minutes off the bench to prove his worth.

He managed an assist for Tyrique George in the last minute, but his lack of game time has brought his future at the club into question, but Maresca says he still has some adapting to do.

“Andrey is working with us, he’s working well,” he said. “He worked already with us last summer in the pre-season, so we know Andrey a little bit.

“His season has been very good, but I think you need time to adapt. The important thing is that he’s working well. And then in terms of position, I see Andrey in this moment more like Enzo’s position than Moises or Romeo’s position.

“And the reason why is because we are here in this moment for this tournament, but we also need to plan for next season, which is the Premier League. And you know that in the Premier League, first of all, you need to be physically strong, because the Premier League demands to be physically strong.

“So in this moment, I see Andrey as a more attacking midfielder than a defensive midfielder.”

Benfica have so far beat Bayern Munich 1-0, Auckland City 6-0 and drawn 2-2 against Boca Juniors in the competition.

On the possibility of Chelsea going into the game as underdogs, Enzo Maresca said: “I think Benfica, not only in this competition, I think overall always show to be a big club in Europe.

“The last game they beat Bayern Munich, so this shows how good they are and what they are able to do.

“Any game is different, so it doesn’t matter if in the past they didn’t beat Chelsea. Every game is tough, it’s complicated and anything can happen.”

Chelsea have experience of knockout football under Maresca in the Conference League last season, but the Italian was hesitant to compare this level of football to the Conference League: “I don’t see the Conference League as important for this competition.

“I think the players are aware that now it’s a knockout game. Previously, we were in a group on the stage. Now we are in a knockout game.

“It’s a knockout game. Anything can happen. But it’s not just for us, it’s for any club. The players are aware that in this moment, the team that is going to make more mistakes is probably the team that the day after is back to home.”