Enzo Maresca has just taken his post-match press conference at Turf Moor after Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Burnley, and he saved some big praise for the Blues’ man of the match.
Andrey Santos was deployed as a Moises Caicedo replacement and did a phenomenal job, both in defence and attack.
Santos gets praise from his coach for thriving in real position
“Yeah, it was a very good [performance]. Andrey’s [real] position is the position that he played today,” Maresca explained.
“With us, most of the time he plays a little bit higher, a little bit in the pocket, but it’s because in that position we have Moises, so we try to find solutions, space for Andrey, but we are aware and we know that Andrey’s position is the position that he played today. It was very good, I think also Jamie Gittens was very good, so it’s important to have all of them on board.”
Santos’ great eye for goal in his time at Strasbourg convinced everyone he was more of a number 10 – it’s interesting to hear Maresca confirm he knows Santos prefers to be deeper and only pushes him forward because Caicedo has that spot locked down.
Hopefully this strong showing will mean more rests for Moises and more starts for Andrey in the weeks to come as Chelsea juggle a busy fixture list.
In other Andrey Santos news…
Maresca also had big praise for Santos when speaking to TNT Sport post game, praising many of the same things about the way the Brazilian played.
Santos was man of the match in his role as a Moises Caicedo replacement, showing all of the energy and intelligence that the Ecuador star does when he plays in the middle.
That was I said that given playing regularly he will develop to become a world class player . He is young but have high IQ in playing football . Maresca should develop Santos as one of the successful player for Chelsea FC . He can play alongside caceido and Fernandez .