Maresca slammed for “lack of awareness” as comments continue to frustrate fans | OneFootball

Chelsea’s loss to Brighton in the FA Cup on Saturday was bad – but Enzo Maresca’s comments after the game made the whole situation much worse.

The coach has been managing expectations all year, which is fair enough when you’re trying to not get drawn into “title talk” when your team clearly isn’t at that level yet.

But this team is good enough to win the FA Cup – well, it should be. If it’s not, given the quality of players at his disposal, a huge amount of blame should fall on Maresca. Chelsea know they’re not winning the league this year, and they’ve already been knocked out of the EFL Cup – but that’s all the more reason to do all they can to win the other domestic trophy.

“We started very good, controlled and created some chances. The second-half more or less happened the same. If there is something good after a defeat is now we can be focused on the Premier League and Conference,” the coach said, underplaying both his side’s poor performance and the seriousness of elimination.

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We said at the time that these comments would infuriate fans, and that has certainly proved to be true. In fact, on the Athletic’s Chelsea podcast, journalist Liam Twomey admitted that they had immediately been the talk of the press room the moment they came out of the manager’s mouth.

“It was one of those cringe-in-the-room moments when he said it,” Twomey said.

“As we were walking back from the conference room to the press room, it was the main topic of conversation; that he’d come out with that and how it would play with Chelsea supporters. I just think it’s a lack of awareness of where the Chelsea fans are emotionally and where Chelsea have been as a club very recently.”