Enzo Maresca defends Chelsea stars after Blues suffered Manchester City blow

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has insisted he is not concerned by his players' decision-making in the 4-2 defeat to Manchester City. Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick, including two in the first five minutes, to condemn Chelsea to another disappointing pre-season defeat.

Oscar Bobb scored City's other goal, ahead of Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke for Chelsea. But Maresca's side made some surprising individual errors just weeks before they face City in their Premier League opener.

Maresca is not worried, however. The Italian coach believes that his team simply needs to learn to manage the different moments of the matches and has called on his players to be better organised.

“We are not worried because we need time to understand the moments,” Maresca said. “It's just about knowing when you concede a goal and you are on the pitch, you have to talk to each other and say: 'Guys, we conceded a goal' and try to organise yourselves a little bit.”

“That's exactly what I said. After the second goal I called Reece [James] “I went to the bench and said to him: 'Okay, now we start the game and we try to do things differently because we conceded two goals'. If you look at the first half, apart from the first five minutes, there is nothing to say.”

Maresca admitted that the poor condition of the Ohio Stadium pitch contributed to some mistakes. He did not, however, use that condition as an excuse for the loss.

The 44-year-old continued: “Sometimes when you say something it sounds like an excuse so I don't want to say it, but for sure the pitch doesn't help. With the way we like to play, the pitch has to be fast, but it was slowing him down.”

“Right now we have to learn things. Probably more than the goals we conceded, we have to learn that when you concede one, you can't concede another one two minutes later and then another one.

“It's something I just told the players: we have to learn. When we concede a goal, we have to become stronger so we don't concede another one.”

Asked if it was a psychological issue, Maresca replied: “That's why I said at that time that sometimes we need to understand a little bit better when we go back, when we play inside or outside, that kind of thing.

“After three or four weeks, it's completely normal. Apart from the first four or five minutes, the match, for me, was good.”