Enzo Maresca’s main prediction for Bournemouth game should have Chelsea fans very worried | OneFootball

Chelsea have just had their press conference ahead of the game against Bournemouth tomorrow, and while the focus was supposed to be on that game, there was little discussion of it.

The focus was more on Wednesday night’s disaster loss at Elland Road, and the decisions behind it.

Maresca expects similar test to Leeds from Bournemouth

Enzo Maresca in a press conference.

There was one moment where Enzo Maresca spoke about the game – he was asked about what kind of challenge the Cherries would pose to his team:

“I think Bournemouth will be a similar game to Leeds,” the manager said.

“That’s where we need to be better. They are intense, Leeds was very intense. I think I said after the game that they were better than us in all the aspects and hopefully we can learn from that and be ready for tomorrow.”

Well, we don’t like the sound of that. We didn’t cope at all with the challenge that Leeds posed, so it’s not promising that Maresca thinks Bournemouth will be similar. We disagree a little – the Vitality Stadium won’t have the same intense atmosphere as Elland Road, especially in a a 3pm Saturday game compared to a midweek match under the lights.

What will be similar is the man to man pressing that Andoni Iraola will use. Against Leeds is really spooked us, and we have to hope that the return of our standing centre back partnership and Reece James to the team helps us out.

In other presser news…

Estevao Willian was taken off at half time on Wednesday, and Enzo Maresca talked about that decision in his press conference today.

Maresca didn’t hold back when he was asked about whether his team needed more experience, pointing to one player who had experience who hadn’t played well in the game.