It would be a fair assumption to think that a head coach would be happier with a half whereby his team scored four goals compared to one which remained goalless. But Blues boss Enzo Maresca has explained why that is not necessarily the case when performance, rather than results, is the key barometer when it comes to improvement.
Maresca has been speaking to the media to preview tomorrow’s Conference League tie with Gent, when the Blues will be going for a fifth consecutive win in all competitions.
The latest was the 4-2 success over Brighton on Saturday, with all six goals coming in a frantic first half. Despite seeing his team find the net four times, it was the work his players executed after the interval that Maresca says best exemplified what he wants to see, tomorrow and beyond.
‘Against Brighton, I was for sure more happy about the second half than the first half,’ said Maresca.
‘The reason why we conceded something in the first half was not because of the players, it was because we analysed Brighton and we expected them in two different ways - how they were playing at the start of the season. They did something completely different and surprised us a little bit in the first half.
‘At half-time we adjusted the way we were pressing, and second half it worked much better. For sure we would like more control, but sometimes you have to see there is another team that wants control, that wants to attack, and it’s not possible. But overall we would like more control like the second half or the West Ham game.
‘You can analyse the result, but I analyse the performance,’ added Maresca.
‘In the second half we created five clear chances, three of them one-on-one. The performance was good, we created many chances, we controlled the game better, and we didn’t concede chances. This is why I was happier with the second half.’
Cole Palmer was the star of the show with his history-making four-goal haul. The England international has not been included in the Conference League squad as his minutes are managed, and Maresca stressed his team are not reliant on the 22-year-old when that point was put to him by a journalist.
‘We already played some games without Cole,’ Maresca pointed out.
‘For sure, for us or any team in the world, Cole gives you an extra that you need. Also, we need to think a little bit that we need to protect some players, they need that. It’s not that we decided to protect Fofana, Lavia or Cole for no reason, there is a reason behind it. I think Cole needs to be protected a little bit.’