Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was forced to defend his playing style after the Blues shared the spoils against Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's Wrexham.
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Chelsea held to a 2-2 draw by WrexhamQuestions were raised about Maresca's style Manager admitted to room for improvementWHAT HAPPENED?
Christopher Nkunku put the Blues in front with a clinical finish in the 35th minute. Both teams made extensive changes during the halftime break, leading to a surprise comeback by Wrexham. Luke Bolton and Jack Marriott capitalized on Chelsea's defensive errors to score and put Wrexham ahead. And if it was not for Lesley Ugochukwu's 82nd-minute equaliser, Maresca would have had to leave the Levi's Stadium with an egg on his face.
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The defensive mistakes highlighted that Chelsea players are still warming up to Maresca's possession-based strategy which involves patient build-up play from the back. Although the manager remains aware of the potential risks involved in this strategy, he asserted that he would remain committed to his style of play.
WHAT MARESCA SAID
When Maresca was asked by reporters if he was worried about conceding too many, he replied: "Hopefully, not too many. It is one of the risks that you have trying to build from behind."
The 44-year-old tactician further added: "I have no doubt. I think you are going to concede in different ways, so you need to decide in which way you need to concede a goal. Sometimes teams that try to build from the back concede goals but I think you are going to score more than you concede.
"For sure, we did many things we can improve, but we started just two weeks ago. Tonight was important to start seeing the identity of the team and the identity is there."
DID YOU KNOW?
Maresca provided insights into Chelsea's tactical experiments during the match. In the first half, Reece James operated as an inverted full-back, moving into the midfield to provide additional support. This approach aimed to enhance the team's build-up play and create more attacking options.
"We tried to build with three and two. First-half with James inside and second-half with Malo [Gusto] inside," Maresca explained.
"It does not matter about the level of the opposition; when they sit back with 11 players behind the ball, it's always difficult to find space and solutions are not easy. In this moment, we started just two weeks ago, it's important that us as the staff and the people can start to see the identity of the team. Tonight it was quite clear. For sure we are going to add more solutions. Like I said, the result for us is always important but in this moment, also we need to judge different things."