Enzo Maresca reveals why he demanded his Chelsea players 'calm down' against Newcastle
Enzo Maresca was seen telling his Chelsea players to stay calm during their 2-1 win over Newcastle, and he has now explained why.
The Blues took the lead through Nicolas Jackson in the first half after Cole Palmer saw a goal disallowed for a marginal offside.
Alexander Isak equalised before the break for the visitors to see the sides head into half-time level, but Chelsea did not let this last long.
Just minutes into the second half, Palmer struck the ball low into Nick Pope's near post to restore the lead for Chelsea, who sat back to defend their advantage for the majority of the second half.
Maresca admitted that their is room for improvement for his side, and revealed where he would like to see his players do better. Despite this, the Italian was proud of the performance of his team.
Speaking to the press after the match, Maresca revealed his thoughts throughout the game as he admitted that he was constantly telling his players to calm down in the second half.
He said: "There are games, especially today's one, that if you do a basketball game, they would destroy us.
"Newcastle are strong, they are good, they have some good players in transition. The reason I was saying to calm was because this is the kind of game before you attack you need to make 15, 20 or 25 passes.
The Italian continued to analyse the game, discussing why he encouraged his players to play a more simple passing game rather than the end-to-end football that Chelsea were used to last season.
"If you want to attack with two passes, you are long distance, they recover the ball and they can cause problems," he said.
"That is the reason I was shouting all game, 'calm, calm, calm, make passes' is because against them if you do up and down game, they destroy us."
Chelsea will now prepare to face Newcastle once again as they travel to St James' Park on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup.
So far this season, Maresca has opted to make several changes in different competitions, so we could see another 11 changes made by the manager heading into Wednesday's clash.
With Robert Sanchez looking shaky between the sticks, Filip Jorgensen will be hoping to make good on his chance in the Carabao Cup despite Maresca sticking by Sanchez as his first choice,
