Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has revealed one of the slowest learners in his squad, following their 4-1 win away to Panathinaikos in Greece on Thursday evening.
Panathinaikos 1-4 Chelsea as Maresca bounces back from Liverpool defeat
It didn’t take too long for the Premier League side to return to form after their defeat at Anfield last weekend.
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Chelsea demolished Panathinaikos on away turf thanks to goals from summer signing Joao Felix (2), Mykhailo Mudryk and Christopher Nkunku. In the build-up to the game, some reports claimed Maresca was unconvinced by Felix behind the scenes, but the Portugal international moved to silence his critics and impress on a wonderful night for him personally.
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Alongside Felix, it was also a good night for Mudryk, who got on the scoresheet and put in an impressive all-round display. There have been many rumours circulating that Chelsea could look to offload Mudryk in January, but the Ukraine international wouldn’t have done himself any harm at all with a convincing display in Europe last night.
Pedro Neto was one of the more sub-par performers against Panathinaikos, being handed a 6/10 rating by some outlets. However, barring that, there was very little to complain about from a Chelsea perspective – who now prepare to take on Newcastle United on Sunday.
“It was a very good performance,” said Maresca on Chelsea’s win over Panathinaikos last night.
“I think we struggled a little bit at the beginning of the game. And we adjusted; we struggled off the ball with our pressing, I think on the ball we were quite good – and then we made some adjustment and were much better.
“The most important thing, I always said, no matter how many players we change, you can see the identity of the team. We can do things better. The identity is quite clear, the way we play on the ball and the way we play off the ball.”
Maresca praises Mudryk but makes slow learner admission at Chelsea
While Mudryk performed well, Maresca made an interesting admission on the Ukranian after their victory.
The Italian, speaking in his post-match press conference, explained that Mudryk is a slower learner than most in the Chelsea squad – but praised the £62 million player for maintaining a consistent improvement behind the scenes.
“Since we started, we are working with Misha and all the wingers to arrive in the box, into the position where Misha scored,” said Maresca.
“He struggled to arrive there and now he is starting to arrive there. That is where we are going to score goals. It’s for him, it’s for Jadon [Sancho], it’s for Noni [Madueke], it’s for Pedro [Neto] – all of the wingers. They need to be in position because the ball is going to arrive in that position.
“We want the best for Misha. Since day one, we are trying to help Misha. Probably for him, he is one of the guys that the learning process is more slow compared to the rest but he is improving. I’m sure that slowly, slowly we will have Misha scoring more goals and being important for us.”