Maresca asked if he feels Chelsea are better now than when the season started

I really like how clearly grounded Maresca comes across, he’s not under any disillusionment about recent wins and recognizes we still have much to improve

He also clearly seems to have a plan for the team as he holds their progression to his own personal standards and says we’re ahead of schedule in his expectations for style of play

Proper manager this

Watched some press conferences and the man looks calm, grounded and not flying over the moon with some series of good performances. CL place looks achievable if they continue this way.

It’s a very objective analysis from the coach. You can’t judge everything by match result – ultimately Wins are what matter most – but in terms of evaluating the team’s progression, you have to look at the overall work on the field. You can do everything right and still lose. You can do everything wrong and somehow get lucky and win. The key thing is doing as much right as possible, keep getting better, and more times than not you create your own luck and the desired outcome – more wins – takes care of itself. Good teams in any sport are working toward improving each day. Maresca gets that and it’s refreshing to see a coach actually articulate it without it sounding rehearsed or dodging answering the actual question.

I love watching his press conferences because if you read the clips, you miss a lot of the nuances in his tone and expression. I like how much pays attention for example on the question about Sanchez, he says the mistake was from Malo but everyone blamed Sanchez. If you go back and watch the clip, you can see than Robert is also mad at Malo as well. I also like that he says Filip needs to do well because we need him to do well, not because he is competing with Robert. On the issue of players not playing, I think while the media and fans continue to freak out about it. I imagine he is able to communicate his reasoning with the team. Everyone is still talking about Chilwell but he is in the team, training and probably adapting to playing under Maresca, same for Mudryk. We have seen Mudryk come on and look better already but people want him to start when the manager feels like he isn’t ready. I know the media desperately wants to stir the pot and find something scandalous to talk about but he is doing a good job, so there’s nothing to talk about. I’m sure on Monday we will hear news that Egbhali threw coffee at Boehly the last time they came to watch a game together.

So refreshing to finally hear something not along the lines of “the boys gave everything”