Enzo Maresca has no doubt he has backing of Chelsea’s owners | OneFootball

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Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca insisted he feels the support of the club’s owners as his side continue to limp towards the season’s conclusion.

Progression to the Conference League semi-finals on Thursday was overshadowed by boos that greeted the players at the end of their 2-1 quarter-final second-leg defeat to Legia Warsaw, with the team currently fifth in the Polish Ekstraklasa good value for their win at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues will play Swedish side Djurgarden in the last four and remain favourites to lift the trophy in Wroclaw on May 28.

But an alarming defeat bodes ominously for the team’s – and the owners’ – main objective of returning the club to the Champions League for the first time in three seasons.

Last Sunday’s 2-2 Premier League draw at home to Ipswich pushed Chelsea out of the top five but, ahead of Sunday’s trip to Fulham, Maresca said he saw no reason to panic.

“We have spent almost all season in a Champions League spot,” he said. “We are in a European semi-final. So why now we need to change something? I don’t have any doubt about what we are doing and the way we are doing.

“For different reasons we had setbacks like (against Legia), but for me this makes us stronger for the future.”

Asked whether he felt the owners’ backing, he said: “Absolutely yes, no doubt.”

Maresca made the surprise decision to start Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson against Legia, who trailed 3-0 from the first leg in Poland.

Neither player has scored since January, with Jackson having missed around two months with injury during that period, and the team have struggled without the goals of their most prolific attacking threats.

Maresca was asked whether it would be possible to reach the Champions League without Palmer and Jackson’s goals.

“No,” he replied. “But I’m confident because they score goals, it’s just at the moment they need to turn the moment.

“Cole scored 14 goals in 20 Premier League games. Nico was the same before the injury. He was out two months so probably physically he needs a bit more and it’s the same for Cole.”

Maresca also gave his backing to captain Reece James, who said after the Legia match that the team had not respected the competition in their approach.

“He’s in charge of that, he’s one of the captains,” said Maresca. “Probably in part he was right, because the first (leg) result we tried to manage in the wrong way. He’s right in what he said.

“If you remember, I complained (earlier in the season) a little bit in terms of (James’) leadership but my target was this, to try to get more from him, to get more from him in terms of leadership.

“When you don’t have a leader, at least you have to try to build some leader. In this moment Reece is doing well. We have two or three players that are making the effort help the rest.”