'Very worried' Maresca admits Lincoln made it 'difficult' for one Chelsea player despite win | OneFootball

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has had his say on Filip Jorgensen's shaky performance in Tuesday's Carabao Cup win over Lincoln City.

Due to Chelsea first-choice goalkeeper Robert Sanchez's suspension, after receiving a red card in last weekend's defeat to Manchester United, Jorgensen was given the nod to start the third round tie.

Given Sanchez's underwhelming performances in his last few games, it was an opportunity for Jorgensen to impress and compete for the number one spot.

Chelsea managed to come from behind, thanks to goals from Tyrique George and loanee Facundo Buonanotte in the second half, to cancel out Rob Street's deserved opener for the hosts and claim a 2-1 victory to progress into the fourth round.

Unfortunately, it was a tough night against a very physical Lincoln side for the Denmark international, as described by Maresca, with Jorgensen struggling to deal with aerial balls into the box.

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"I think that, I don't know how many balls they put inside the box tonight, you know, throw-ins, free-kick, cross, so I think it was not easy for any goalkeepers, to be honest," Maresca told reporters post-match.

"And I think overall, even, you know, we conceded against Brentford in extra time from throw-ins (earlier this month), it's not easy.

"It's not easy because they bring so many players inside the box, they try to create chaos around the goalkeepers, so you cannot move, you cannot go out, you cannot catch the ball, it's difficult.

"And also, you know, for Filip, I think it was the first game of the season, so not easy, but at the end, again, we won the game, I was very worried about this game."

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While Maresca justifiably defended Jorgensen's display, it was also pretty clear to everyone that if the goalkeeper were to compete for the starting spot, he should have performed better.

Jorgensen failed to make any saves in the game and even made one error that led to a chance for Lincoln.

Distribution-wise, he did fairly well, with a 50 per cent success rate with his long balls and 87 per cent accuracy with his passes overall.

Still, with Sanchez being available for the upcoming home Premier League match against Brighton this weekend, Jorgensen is set to drop back to the bench and will have to wait for another chance to try to impress.