Enzo Maresca has just taken his press conference ahead of Chelsea’s game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League tomorrow night, and there was one storyline that was bound to be picked up on.
Jackson situation questioned by journalists
The Blues loaned their first choice striker of the last two years, Nicolas Jackson, to Bayern on deadline day. He’s eligible to face them tomorrow night. There’s a whiff of revenge in the air – despite both parties making nice, there’s plenty of rumours that Jackson was keen to go and Chelsea happy to let him, and even talk that his relationship with Maresca was broken by the end, following costly red cards for the striker.
The coach was asked why he had chosen to loan out Jackson, and not to “count on him” for the season ahead. This was his reply:
“Because we both chose two strikers, Liam Delap and Joao Pedro. I think having two strikers is a good number, it is enough.”
Maresca’s white lie about Jackson
It was a short answer, and he wasn’t going to expand. On it. It’s also a lie. Two strikers is not enough for a team playing in 4 competitions. You don’t even have to think hard about why it’s a lie – Chelsea only allowed the deal to go through (having almost cancelled it) once they knew that were able to recall Marc Guiu – a striker – back from his own loan deal to Sunderland.
They let Jackson go because they want the money. If there was no loan fee on the table, do you really think they would have
Let’s be honest, Jackson would be starting for Chelsea tomorrow night were he not a Bayern player. We understand why Maresca would pretend otherwise, but we don’t have to take him at his word.
C’mon, SuperFrank. We all know (and Maresca knows better than anyone) that Jackson was going to be a serious malcontent if he was buried three deep on the depth chart. So, to claim this was only about the money is to ignore the obvious need to move him before he became a cancer in the dressing room. Furthermore, calling Maresca a liar is just outright hyperbole. Pep talks frequently about how having too large a squad causes more problems than it solves and so it’s entirely understandable that Maresca felt two strikers was the right balance. Besides, the problem hasn’t been that we lack for a striker. It’s that we don’t have adequate coverage at the 10 when/if Palmer goes out and Pedro is already covering for Delap’s absence at the 9. If you want to carp on about the state of the squad then that’s the weakness the directors failed to address, not the 9.