Chelsea’s defeat to Liverpool on Sunday was one made up of fine margins at times. It felt like they were let down by mistakes at the back and from their goalkeeper, but equally it felt like the home team could have gone up a gear and put the game out of sight if they really wanted to.
Michael Dawson was on Sky Sports today talking about the game, and he had some interesting thoughts on Enzo Maresca’s style of play after having seen a lot of his Leicester team in the Championship last year.
You can see the former Spurs defender speaking in the clip embedded here:
“They’ve had a very good start under [Enzo] Maresca” 👏
Michael Dawson says Chelsea have had a positive start to the season ✅ pic.twitter.com/M8aBhyDEjn
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 22, 2024
Chelsea mistakes need to be wiped out if Blues want to hit next level
“Defensively I think they need to improve, I really do believe that with Chelsea,” the former Spurs defender explained.
“But the way that Maresca plays, we saw at Leicester last year: getting the ball out from the back, putting it at risk at times. Even going to Anfield at times, we saw Sancho turn it over. But that’s the way he wants to play! So you have to accept that players will make mistakes.
We certainly think that both things can happen. Yes, if you want to play out from the back, you know that sometimes it’s going to go horribly wrong. But the mistakes on Sunday weren’t really a direct result of playing out from the back. Robert Sanchez’s dreadful kicking was worse when he was trying to boot it long than play it short. Levi Colwill’s tackle that gave away a penalty was nothing to do with anything Maresca has told him, it was just sloppy.
So while Dawson is right that we have to accept a few clangers, we can reasonably expect a lot of the clumsy play to be eradicated. It will need to be, if we want to win anything.
