Enzo Maresca was pretty committed to never giving an in-depth, interesting answer in press conferences, so it’s a relief to have a change in that regard. Interim Calum McFarlane made a really effective half time change against Man City today, and was very happy to talk about it at some length post-game.
The change that helped Chelsea earn a point
“We didn’t expect them to shape up the way they did in the first half… So then they had a lot of control and we were getting pinned back. With Estevao and Pedro [Neto] getting pinned back to defend in a back five at times, which means that they have so much control and so much rhythm,” the interim coach said.
“That’s not how we wanted the game to look. So we made a change at half-time to go more man-for-man against the ball and to be able to get more pressure and disrupt their rhythm and hopefully force them to go a little bit longer.”
It worked well, in part because going behind before half time encouraged Chelsea to push forward more. They had enough threat to keep City honest, which stopped the home team scoring a second which would have killed the game.
Andrey Santos’ introduction was the key to all this, and it will be interesting to see if he ends up being the player to benefit most from Maresca’s departure.
In other news…
McFarlane also spoke to Sky Sports, mentioning some of the senior players from Chelsea’s squad who had travelled with the team to support them during this game, despite knowing they wouldn’t play.
Chelsea had to dig deep for a point against Man City, and captain Reece James has explained just how they did it.
