Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has been speaking to the media before Thursday’s Europa Conference League game against KAA Gent (kick-off 20:00 BST).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
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Maresca said he is “excited” by the prospect of the Europa Conference League as a competition and the team will continue to “try their best” in it.
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He confirmed that he has a fully fit squad to choose from aside from Reece James who remains absent through injury.
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On the Europa Conference League being good for squad rotation: “At the moment it looks like we have players that are playing in the Premier League and players that are playing in the cups. In this moment it is like this but in general it won’t be like this.”
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On whether Filip Jorgensen can put pressure on Robert Sanchez for the number one shirt: “Filip has to do well because we need him doing well, not because we have to have him putting pressure on Robert.”
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He confirmed there was no injury with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who missed out of the matchday squad last week, stating the decision is simply the “bad part” [of the job] and sometimes “you have to do that”.
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On whether he has any regrets on leaving Ben Chilwell out of the European squad: “No.”
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On the team not having enough control of games: “For sure we would like more control but sometimes we need to analyse that there is another team that wants to control and attack and sometimes it is not possible. For sure we would like control like the second-half [vs Brighton] or the West Ham game that I think we controlled really good.”
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On having too much reliance on Cole Palmer: “We already played some games without Cole, but for us, Cole is something extra that you need. We also need to think a bit to protect some players. There is a reason behind it [his absence] and I think Cole needs to be protected.”
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When asked if he believes the team have improved under him: “If you analyse the results probably yes but sometimes you don’t win games and the performance is good when you deserve to win, for example, Palace. Sometimes you win games that you don’t deserve, for example, Bournemouth. It depends how you judge. We have many things we need to improve but we are happy because the feeling is good.”
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