Maresca defends Jackson after striker’s red card against Flamengo | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca insists Nicolas Jackson’s Chelsea future is not under threat because of his disciplinary issues.

Chelsea lost 3-1 to Flamengo in their second Club World Cup group game after a frantic few minutes in the second half which involved two Flamengo goals and Jackson being sent off for a late tackle.

Jackson missed the end of the Premier League season after being sent off against Newcastle, but Maresca says he is unsure that the decision to send him off against Flamengo was the correct one.

“It happened against Newcastle and today,” he said. “I am not 100% sure it’s a red card compared to the Newcastle one. It’s a little bit of a bad moment for Nico.

“Six minutes changed the game. In the second half, we started better compared to the first half. But we conceded two goals in two minutes and then the red card. It changed the dynamic. They deserved to win.”

The Chelsea boss also accepted that his side deserved to lose the game.

“They deserved to win,” he continued. “We tried to do something different in the game, for next season and the future. Now we have one more game, we will try to win.”

Despite Jackson’s recent disciplinary issues, Maresca says his opinion of the striker has not changed and backed him to improve.

“The red card has nothing to do with Nico’s future… Nico knows in both games [Flamengo and Newcastle] it was not good for the team,” he said.

“Nico apologised. At Newcastle, we were just 1-0 down and it was in the first half. Today, we were 2-1 down but with half-an-hour left. There was time to play, but with one man down it became all the more difficult.”