Maresca happy with Chelsea performance in goalless Everton draw

Maresca happy with Chelsea performance in goalless Everton draw  22/12/2024  Goodison Park, Liverpool, UK

Transcript

00:00No, no, I'm absolutely happy. I just said to the players that I'm more happy today than

00:23Brentford game. The reason why is because I was quite worried about this game. It's

00:28a tricky game, tricky stadium, tricky team. They are defensively top. They are one of

00:34the five best teams in Europe in terms of clean sheet. So you struggle to create chances

00:39against them. It was not an easy game. You have to deal and you have to learn to play

00:44different games. Long ball, second ball, channel, set-pieces. Football is not only just how

00:50good we play on the ball. It's also how you defend, how you deal with that. I'm very proud

00:55today and, as I said, more happy today than Brentford game. For sure we're going to prepare

01:00the game always. We prepare the game to try to win every game, but sometimes there is

01:04also another team there that they try to do the same. So we are happy today.

01:09What do you think you could have done differently in the second half to create more chances?

01:15I think it was just that one long-range effort from Enzo that was the only shot on target

01:21in the second half.

01:22As I said, we knew already that it was a tough game in terms of clear chances. If you see

01:29them last game against Arsenal, but in general, you always struggle to create chances against

01:36them. For sure we could attack better, but there was not space for goal. The last half

01:44an hour we tried to move a little bit Enzo as attacking midfielder, Malo next to Moy

01:49to change something. But overall in these kind of games, knowing that you are not going

01:55to create many chances, you have to be clinical. I think in the first half we had the Nico

02:001v1 goalkeeper, the post from Nico, we had another two or three chances inside the box.

02:05If you are able to be clinical there and score, probably the game becomes completely different,

02:09but until that moment you want to struggle.

02:13Just a word on Tosin's performance and how important is he going to be over the next

02:17few weeks given the injuries that you've got?

02:19Tosin was very good, Levi was very good. I think all the players defensively today, we

02:25were very good, so happy for them. Again, clean sheet, we don't concede. We arrived

02:32to the Christmas moment, second in the table, best attacker, one of the best defenders,

02:38so we are happy. But the most important thing is that we need to learn to play different

02:43kinds of games, and today was not an easy game.

02:50Robert Sanchez has been criticised a lot recently, but I thought he was outstanding today. Just

02:53a word on his performance?

02:56I think Robert did one save in the first half, and then in the second half he did one more.

03:02So overall, for sure we are happy about Robert, but overall I think he is also there to help

03:09us when we need him.

03:11How did the wind, it was very windy out there, how did that affect the game? Because Everton

03:15like to play a lot of long balls, I imagine it made it a lot harder for your defenders?

03:19Yes, as I said, today's game was a completely different game compared to the rest. You have

03:25to learn, and you have to deal with, as I said, long ball, second ball, channel, set

03:31pieces, throwing, it's not easy. But the way they show togetherness has been brilliant today.