“He starts tomorrow” – Enzo Maresca to hand backup the chance to lift a trophy | OneFootball

There were a few interesting piece of team news Enzo Maresca had to answer questions about in his press conference today.

He was asked about Cole Palmer’s chances of playing, as well as the status of his injured players.

But top of the agenda, as always, was the ongoing goalkeeper situation. Robert Sanchez has been dropped in the Premier League, swapping places with Filip Jorgensen, who used to be the cup keeper. Maresca confirmed that this setup was going to continue for now:

“Robert starts tomorrow, yes. In this moment, I think he already played Brighton away in the FA Cup, the last FA Cup game, and then he didn’t play in the Premier League. Tomorrow he is going to play and we’ll see. I said a few times already about Robert, it’s a matter to give him different kind of games to try and help him. This is the reason why.”

This should be a good chance for the Spaniard to get some confidence back – and if he keeps his place, it might mean he ends up lifting a trophy at the end of the season.

Enzo Maresca admits two legged tie means different mindset

Enzo Maresca at full time after FA Cup defeat. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Maresca was also asked about how he would prepare for this game, as his first as a coach in a European knockout game:

“We try game after game, to be focused on what we can do better, since we started. Not only the game, but also the training sessions. For me, the main focus is try to help players to improve. The preparation is exactly the same as we prepare Southampton, how we will prepare Leicester and we prepare all the rest of the games,” the coach said.

“It’s not 90 minutes, it’s 180 minutes, so it’s a bit different. You can manage a little bit different,” he followed, slightly contradicting himself.