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Enzo Maresca took his pre-Bournemouth press conference on Friday morning and the Chelsea head coach was questioned on whether his squad lacked the experience to compete at Leeds United
Enzo Maresca is confident there is enough leadership in his Chelsea squad to bounce back from setbacks - but is not afraid to publicly call his players out.
The Blues suffered their first Premier League defeat since October on Wednesday evening as Maresca's young players crumbled under the pressure against Leeds United. The newly-promoted side thoroughly deserved the three points at Elland Road, with a series of mistakes costing a heavily-rotated Chelsea.
Chelsea finished the 2024/25 season as the youngest ever Premier League team, with an average age of just 24 years and 36 days, with the club's ownership group BlueCo prioritising signing inexperienced but exciting talent. The line-up Maresca fielded in the 3-1 defeat in Leeds on Wednesday night had an average age of younger than 24, but the Chelsea head coach does not believe the lack of experience is the problem for the Blues.
Maresca even singled out Tosin Adarabioyo, the most senior member of the Chelsea squad, after he was to blame for Leeds' third and final goal of the evening. "Listen, we always talk about experience when we drop points. When we beat Barcelona, we drew against Arsenal, no one was mentioning about experienced players," said Maresca.
"So, again, I understand that when we don't win, we are always looking for the reason why, but I think the reason why we didn't win against Leeds is not because of the experience, it's because we were not good enough.
"But we have experienced players. Unfortunately, they were not on the pitch. One because he was suspended, the other one because of injury. So, it's because at that moment, the ones that have more experience, they were out.
"Who is the oldest one for us in the pitch? Who was? Tosin. Did he play good? So, it's not about experience. It's about that 11 players, they were not good enough. I know that we are always looking for experience, but it was a bad game for all of us."
Chelsea travel to Bournemouth this afternoon as the Blues look to get back on track in the Premier League, and Maresca is expecting a similar test at the Vitality Stadium to what his side experienced in Yorkshire in the week.
"I think Bournemouth will be a similar game to Leeds," the Chelsea head coach explained. "That is where we need to be better. They are intense, Leeds was very intense.
"I think I said after the game that they were better than us in all aspects and hopefully we can learn from that and be ready."
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