Enzo Maresca was asked an interesting question in today’s press conference about Moises Caicedo.
The midfielder is back from another successful international break with Ecuador where he continues to really impress. He’s had a good season with Chelsea too up till now, and the Italian coach was asked what he had done himself to “improve” Caicedo.
“I don’t know. That’s more a question for him. I really believe to improve as a team, you need to improve the players. We are trying to, not only with Moi but all the players, to dedicate time for them, spend time with them, for extra work almost every day. At the end of the session, we keep players for extra work and Moi is one of the players,” Maresca explained.
“We are happy with the way he is playing. We didn’t have any doubts about him as a player or a person and we are very happy with him at the moment,” the coach concluded.
Caicedo’s overtime paying off with constant improvement
“Extra work” makes it sound like he’s being held back after school for detention, or at least extra French classes. But it’s definitely not a punishment, just a little extra-curricular attention from his boss to help the midfielder improve.
It seems to be working too – it’s hard to know what to attribute to the improved team and what to attribute to individual improvements for Caicedo, but he’s continuing his steady improvement since his rocky start a year ago. His average WhoScored rating on the season so far is 7.13, a major jump up from last season’s 6.85.
He’s working hard and getting better – and that’s more than you can say for some other players in this squad. Can we give them some “extra work” too?
