Enzo Maresca says he is still trying to get Mauricio Pochettino’s philosophy out of his Chelsea players as he does not want them playing such a ludicrously high line.
Chelsea’s fifth and final friendly of their United States tour saw them lose 2-1 to Real Madrid, who regularly got in behind the Blues by playing a single pass into the space.
Yet Maresca told reporters that is not what he wants as he said: ‘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.
‘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.’
Chelsea will face Manchester City on the first day of the Premier League season. Not wanting Pep Guardiola’s side to exploit their naivety, Maresca said: ‘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.
‘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.’
