“No.” – Blunt Maresca says Chelsea will reach Champions League without this | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca’s press conference previewing our game against Fulham on Sunday was as tense as they come.

Taking place directly after a loss to Legia Warsaw at home in the Conference League, on the back of two bad results in the Premier League, the coach is feeling the heat as our Champions League chances slip away.

One major issue is that his two top attackers, Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson, have totally stopped scoring. Both were very poor last night, in a game where they were only used to try and get their confidence up.

It was put to Maresca very plainly by a journalist: do you think you can achieve your target this season if Palmer and Jackson do not start scoring?

His answer was even more stark:

“No.”

Was it as simple as that?

“Yeah.”

Maresca on how he can get key man back in the goals

Enzo Maresca responds in a press conference after Legia Warsaw defeat.

Asked then if he was confident they would be able to do that, Maresca waffled on for a bit without very much conviction about why he thought they’d find form again soon:

“I’m confident because they scored goals [before]. They have scored goals. It’s just a moment that they need to get through… But I said before, Cole scored 14 goals in 20 Premier League games. So he has scored goals before. Nico was the same before the injury. Now, unfortunately, Nico was out for two months, so probably physically needs a little bit more [time to recover]. And this is the same for Cole.”

Of course, saying that both players will be back to their best once they’re physically 100% is to ignore that their struggles began long before the injuries – Jackson was 8 games without a goal, for example. It’s another excuse which doesn’t really add up.