Why Maresca chose to call out his young star after mistake against West Ham | OneFootball

We’ve all been waiting a long time for Estevao Willian’s first start in the Premier League, but it ended up coming sooner than expected.

Chelsea were forced to make a late change to their lineup to include the Brazilian after Cole Palmer pulled out of the warmup. Estevao ended up having a great game, grabbing an assist and looking as electric as usual.

However post game, Enzo Maresca chose to also point out to the media that the Brazilian had made a mistake which led to the opening goal when his attempted flick was picked off.

Podcast on Maresca’s thinking in Estevao criticism

Estevao Willian in action for Chelsea against West Ham. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

On the London is Blue podcast this week they discussed what Maresca’s thinking behind this was:

“I think it’s a way to actually protect him, weirdly,” presenter Nick Verlaney posited.

“The hype is going to quickly build, if it hasn’t already. I mean it might be already beyond containment, then like we might be in a spot where people are going to be upset if Estevao doesn’t start every game from now on, because he is so electric and so fun. And I think Enzo Maresca’s saying ‘he’s great, we love him, but he has work to do.’ He’s also 18 years old. And there’s just going to be a lot of progression and maturity that happens, as he becomes a full fledged Premier League player. So I actually think this is like a tempering of expectations that was super smart.”

You can see the comments in the clip embedded here:

Maresca flexes man management muscles

That’s totally correct – and it should be noted that Maresca’s comments were said with a smile – he knows he’s nit-picking when he could be lavishing praise.

We saw the Chelsea boss call out Noni Madueke for poor training performance last year – he’s not a man who is afraid to be critical, as long as it’s balanced with praise.