Every word Enzo Maresca said on Chelsea pressure, facing Jose Mourinho, triple injury concern

Enzo Maresca has just completed his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea's Champions League match at home to Benfica on Tuesday evening.

The Blues welcome the Portuguese side to Stamford Bridge for their second European match of the league phase, with Jose Mourinho returning to SW6. Maresca has just finished his press conference ahead of the game, and below, football.london has compiled his quotes in a full transcript:

What will it be like to face Jose Mourinho?

It will be a privilege to face Jose tomorrow. A legend for this club, not only for this club but for different clubs.

Pressure to win tomorrow?

We make sure or we try at least to prepare every game to win the game and hopefully we can do that tomorrow.

You're obviously used to seeing pictures everywhere of former coaches lifting trophies. How much do you want to add to your place for the picture, whether it be the Champions League trophy or the Premier League trophy like Mourinho has over there?

To be honest, I feel already quite lucky to have some pictures at the training ground with the Club World Cup. So I feel already lucky with that after one season. But for sure the target is hopefully one day, not only with the Club World Cup but also with the Conference League. But for sure the target is one day we can all together enjoy this kind of moment.

Romance in Mourinho coming back to Stamford Bridge?

I said probably in the first question I guess. For me, it's first of all a privilege to represent this club in the Champions League. For sure it's also a privilege to face a fantastic manager like Jose tomorrow.

What do you expect from this Benfica?

It's probably a little bit more difficult [to prepare] and the reason why is because they just played I think three or four games with Jose. All the teams that I started to watch unfortunately were with the former manager. I watched three or four games with Jose. I watched also some games where Jose was Man Utd or Spurs or Roma in Italy. But for sure it will be a completely different game compared to the Club World Cup game.

The fans may sing Mourinho's name tomorrow. How much do you want them to sing your name? What do you need to do?

Probably continue to win trophies. I remember for some moment of last season I think it was Southampton away where the fans were starting to sing we have our Chelsea back. To be honest, I would like one day for sure but it's not my target. I'm already happy if they can sing 'we have our Chelsea back'. Because that means that as a team, as a club, we are doing something important.

It would be special to hear your name though surely as well...

Yes, for sure, but again if they can sing we have our Chelsea back I'm already happy. For sure one day they can sing my name even more but the target is not that. It's just that we are able to win games and the fans can be happy.

Do you need to rotate to prevent even more injuries?

We need to maintain levels for sure because the Champions League requires high levels. As you said in this moment we have unfortunately many players out for injury. This afternoon we're going to assess Moises Caicedo, Joao Pedro and Andrey Santos. They are all players unfortunately for us with some small problems. So we'll see if tomorrow they're going to be available. But we are for sure in this moment we have injuries but we have a squad enough in this moment to try to replace the injuries we have.

How do you assess Estevao Willian's start at Chelsea?

I still think the same. He's doing very good, he's doing very well. It's not easy. We said already for a 17-18 year-old player to arrive here in Europe with a big club like Chelsea and show immediately the quality that he has. We are very happy with him. He's a very good boy. It's what we need also in terms of energy. But for sure he can play in the five positions, attacking positions.

What's the message to the players now? Is there a lot of positivity and is there a lot of respect for those guys who remain on the field? How are you keeping them up?

In this moment, I think we need to be positive first of all because it's what the players need. Second because personally I think there is no reason to be negative this morning. The club showed me the stats that in the last six months we lost five games, four of them with a red card.

So for sure we like winning games, there is no doubt. But also the reality is that there is not any pressure. The pressure we have is the pressure that we know that being at Chelsea as a player, as a manager you need to win games, no doubt. But at the same moment the reality is that for different reasons, injuries and red cards, we lost five games in almost six months. But at the same time I think it's something not bad.

Could you tell us tactically about the rival ahead, Benfica?

I think from Benfica, from Chelsea you can expect the way they are playing now, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1. But you can also expect that they can play back five. So I expect two or three different things and we have a plan for these two or three things that I expect. But he showed during his career how good he has been playing with different shapes, so we expect different things.

How do you coach avoiding red cards?

First of all, for sure I think after reviewing the last two games, Man Utd and Brighton with 10 players, for sure I could have done better probably in terms of [my] decisions. No doubt, but also for me it's like a learning process to play with 10 players because I think for any manager it's not something normal.

Unfortunately for us it happened two times. And the stats is that in the last almost six months we lost five games, four of them with a red card. Newcastle, Flamengo, Man Utd and Brighton. And the only game that we lost 11vs11 was Bayern Munich away. So that's why I said for me personally there is not any reason that we need to panic knowing that football is a crazy world.

If you lost five games in six months and you need to say things to defend yourself, that means that it's a crazy world. So I don't think we need to defend ourselves in this moment because the reality is that I have a very good feeling with the squad we have.

I think compared to last season we have all improved. The players because they can play games, they can have more experience. Me personally as a manager, I think I feel better than last year. The reason why is because I'm learning. For sure there are many, many things that I need to learn. For instance playing with 10 players is something that probably I need to do better. But it's part of the process and I don't have any doubt that in the future we're going to be better and better.

What are you telling your players that they need to do to be at the Champions League level?

We need a high level, no doubt. But also we have players young but in the same moment already experiencing this competition. [Jorrel] Hato for instance from Ajax, he has already experience in this competition.

For me personally he will be top player for Chelsea. We have, I don't know, [Alejandro] Garnacho or [Jamie] Gittens. They are all players that even if they are young they already played in this competition. Joao Pedro probably he never played in this competition but he joined us and he helped us to win the Club World Cup. So they are all players with talent, for sure. They are going to help the club, they are going to help the team. And with more games they are going to be better and better.

How is your relationship with the fans at the moment? We heard a little bit of discontent Saturday at the end of the match.

I think most of the time the fans react to the results. I can completely understand that after a defeat it is normal that the fans are happy. But I am not happy, the players are not happy, the club is not happy. Then as I said at the beginning last year they were singing 'we have our Chelsea back'. Then we had a bad run and they were not happy. So for me, it is more the reaction after the results.

Again, if in this moment after five defeats in six months we are not happy. Probably this will be lack of balance in this sport. But this is a sport where I am in from the last 40 years. So I know exactly that it is like this. The only thing you can do is try to do better, try to learn, improve. The most important thing in this business is winning games.

Did Mourinho lay the foundations for success at Chelsea?

The only thing I can say about Chelsea is the thing that I just said. For me personally it is a legend for this club. For me, it is also a legend for Inter when we won the Champions League. So it is a legend for different clubs in the world that show how good he has been and how good he was at Chelsea. In terms of what he deserves, to be honest I am not here to think what they deserve. I think you already showed how important manager has been at this.