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New Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is not exactly a fan of his team’s preseason tour of the United States. The Blues, like many of the top European teams, have scheduled various friendlies across America in recent weeks. The idea is to reap the financial benefits of playing in front of massive crowds, while also preparing for a grueling 2024/25 season.
Nevertheless, Maresca has admitted that his club’s summer schedule is “a lot” to deal with. Chelsea began their USA summer tour back on July 24th in California. Then have since played three more matches before getting ready to complete the tour on Tuesday in Charlotte. In total, the Blues have traveled around 3,700 miles since initially arriving in the States. This immense travel in just two weeks does not include their overseas trip from London.
Along with travel, Enzo Maresca has also claimed that he has not been able to fully prepare for the friendlies. This apparently even includes not implementing certain tactics to his new players. “The ideal situation is when you have time to prepare for the game, but most of our matches were without this,” Maresca told reporters on Monday. “Some of the games we prepared with just video or a tactical board. But overall we tried to adapt.”
Maresca then even asserted that official preseason preparations for his team do not even necessarily include their Stateside tour. “The real preseason was the two weeks in Cobham and, to be honest, after when we go back,” continued the coach.
Chelsea has been discordant throughout their USA tour
The coach’s comments could be seen as a way to deflect attention away from their performances on the tour. Chelsea has looked out of sync in most of their preseason matches so far. In fact, they needed a late goal in their opening game of the tour to salvage a draw against League One club Wrexham.
The Blues were then thoroughly thumped by Celtic 4-1 at Notre Dame Stadium. The match was 4-0 after the…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/chelsea-boss-enzo-maresca-casts-dark-shadow-over-us-tour/
Author : Chris Moore
Publish date : 2024-08-06 16:18:29
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