Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca unleashed his anger at his players when he escaped the humiliating Carabao Cup exclusion. Bruce faced Lincoln City, a League One outfit on Tuesday evening. They ultimately advanced to the fourth round with a 2-1 victory courtesy of the strikes of Tyrique George and Facundo Buonanotte.
However, Lincoln was threatening a real shock just before halftime after Rob Street handed him a stunning opener to his side. Chelsea was horrifying in the first half, and Maresca assured his team would understand his frustration at changing room intervals. When questioned whether tensions had erupted at halftime, the Italian manager replied:
“We think of the game exactly the first half way, so sometimes it’s about desire, and it’s about winning the second ball, but it’s about experience too.”
Maresca picked out two players and said, “Jamie Gittens never played against League One (team), this kind of game. Yorel Hat has never played this kind of game. He has to play in a different way.”
The Italian coach also made it clear that he must remember to his team that despite facing lower division opponents, the standards must remain high, but he praised his team for increasing performance levels after the interval.
He continued.
“I know some of them, they didn’t play these kinds of games. I asked how many people they’re going to play against today, you’re a league 1 team. You need to know another kind of game, so you need to play another kind of game.
“It’s not the same game, because the desire from them is twice as high as this kind of thing, from duels. We struggled in the first half, I think it was much better in the second half.”
Having secured their position in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, Chelsea bring their focus back to Premier League issues. Bruce welcomes Brighton to Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.
