Enzo Maresca’s unimpressive start as Chelsea manager continued with the Blues recording a third defeat in four matches under his watch against Real Madrid, MySportDab reports.
In a tightly-contested pre-season clash against Los Blancos, the London outfit were put to the sword. Lucas Vazquez has fired the European champions into the lead in the 19th minute.
Eight minutes later, Brahima Diaz doubled the lead for the La Liga champions, making it 2-0 before the half-hour. Nine minutes after the half-hour, Noni Madueke halved the deficit for the Blues.
Real Madrid won at the break and the three goals was all that could be mustered in the game as the second half ended barren.
Speaking after the game, Chelsea’s new manager blamed the club’s defense pattern for the loss. The former Leicester boss seems to shift the blame to his predecessor Mauricio Pochettino, who left the role on mutual consent after the end of last season.
According to Maresca, the problem with the team is the high defense line during matches which the team had inherited from Pochettino.
Here is what he said;
‘The problem is defensively. When I say “defensively” I don’t just mean the defensive line, but in general, all the players. Now it’s finished. We head back to London. We have Inter Milan and then an official game.’
“It’s a problem we are trying to solve from pre-season since day one. One of my first meetings with the squad was about the amount of goals we conceded last year with the defensive line very high
“It’s something we are trying to work on. Today, offensively, we are there – the patterns are there. We created chances.
“We are trying to drop the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five metres, just to have some advantage. Last year, we already conceded many goals with this problem. Hopefully we can solve it very soon.’
“It’s a habit. We are not working on defensive lines so high. It’s a habit from last year, or years ago, I don’t know.
The loss to Real Madrid is Chelsea’s third defeat in their four pre-season matches under Maresca. The Blues’ opened their pre-season campaign with a 2-2 draw against Wrexham, 4-1 loss to Celtic in the second match, 3-0 win over Club America in the third march, 4-2 defeat to Manchester City, and the 2-1 loss to Real Madrid.
They have conceded 12 goals in the five matches, sparking concern from Maresca, who will hope to turn around the club’s fortunes in the upcoming season.
