Enzo Maresca was asked in the press conference yesterday about what he thought his team’s best showing of the season had been, and in typical manager style he chose a defeat.
The opening day game against Man City was a funny game in that we were almost resigned to losing it (given the circumstances of our new-look team taking on the most successful and established side in he country), yet we did give them a decent go, and it did correctly point to good results to follow.
“I consider the City game our best game this season for many reasons. First of all, because I know City very well and secondly because I think we played a good game and we did not concede many chances against a team that score and have many chances,” Maresca explained.
“We had many chances to score before they scored and after they scored. Unfortunately, we did not score. But I consider that game probably our best game. Game after game we are improving different things for sure, but that game was a good game.”
Maresca reveals what bothers him despite good results
It’s typical a typical manager answer actually – they love to pick out a game they lost or drew as their “best performance” as it adds weight to their argument when they’re in a bad run and say the team is doing well, despite not getting the results.
In this case it’s interesting to see him note specifically that he was happy “we did not concede many chances.” It’s a quite revealing answer which shows what’s frustrating him. We’ve had good results since that game, but our weakness without doubt has been giving away a lot of chances. Clearly it’s something that’s on the coach’s mind, and we expect steady progress in that area over time.
