It was a funny old night at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea won easily, but in the wake of anti-ownership protests before the game, there was a strange atmosphere in the stadium.
When the home team were looking passive and slow in the first half, the anxiety ramped up. This Southampton team are dire, but that just increases the pressure and the expectation against them.
Things came to a head with some of goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen’s touches. He looked nervous, that made the crowd nervous, and you could feel the fear around the ground every time he was pressed. Yet he continued to follow his manager’s instructions and play short balls to the defenders and midfielders just ahead of him.
“My message to Filip was: ‘if you play long ball, I will change you.’ So he was just doing what I told him to,” Maresca explained in the press conference afterwards.
“I was very happy [with Filip], any small details can make the difference.”
You can see Maresca’s answer in the clip embedded here:
https://twitter.com/HaytersTV/status/1894534296750190898
Jorgensen obeys manager to the letter – but situation seems untenable
Well, Jorgensen certainly took him at his word. He continued to play out from the back, and in fact continued to stand still over the ball waiting for an option while the crowd jeered and booed the team’s slow play from the back.
We’re still not sure this is a good idea until we’ve got a really confident goalkeeper and defence, but it seems that Maresca’s made his mind up, and we’d better get used to it. Hopefully tonight is good for Jorgensen’s mindset. He made a good save which will help.
Otherwise we’re in the unfortunate situation of having two shaky goalkeepers and a manager who insists on playing out from the back.
