Enzo Maresca ‘sorry’ for sacked Ange Postecoglou but part of football ‘business’ | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca admitted he had sympathy for Ange Postecoglou, who was sacked just minutes after Nottingham Forest’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea at the City Ground.

Postecoglou was relieved of his duties following less than six weeks in charge. He had failed to win any of his eight games at the club.

Owner Evangelos Marinakis left his seat during the second half while Forest were 2-0 down and Postecoglou’s sacking was confirmed 19 minutes after full-time.

An encouraging first half  for Forest was quickly forgotten about within six minutes of the second period when Josh Acheampong headed home his first senior goal before Pedro Neto struck a free-kick beyond Matz Sels.

The visitors made things worse for Postecoglou when Reece James drilled in from a corner and dealt Forest with a fourth successive defeat in all competitions and  brought the 60-year-old’s short time as Forest manager to an end.

Maresca shared his sympathies with Postecoglou at his post-match press conference.

He said: “I didn’t speak with Ange. I didn’t see him but just said I feel very sorry for him.

“But we said many times this is a business where if you don’t win games, the consequence for all of us is exactly the same. So, sorry for him.”

Malo Gusto was sent off after he brought down Neco Williams and the referee Chris Kavanagh brandished him a second yellow card which was Chelsea’s fourth red card of the season.

However, Maresca is not worried about his team’s discipline.

He said: “We can do better in terms of the red card, that is a mistake at 3-0 already on one yellow card. We can avoid that.

“In the same time I must say the desire to not concede a goal is important also. The second yellow card from Malo of course he can avoid that but the desire showed they were playing for a clean sheet and don’t want to concede.

“It’s something we can do better but I’m not concerned. I know there will be some of you saying ‘why is he not concerned?’ But I’m not concerned. We can avoid that for sure but for me the desire of the players is important.”

Maresca served a one-match touchline ban as punishment for his sending off against Liverpool after he ran down the touchline to celebrate his side’s winner.

The 45-year-old said he prefers to be in the dugout but praised the way his side responded after the break.

He said: “Very bad feeling to be there. I prefer to be in the dugout to be honest.“My message at half time was off the ball we are good, on the ball not good enough.

“We can avoid sloppy mistakes. We looked sloppy on the build up which was not good enough.”