Chelsea must solve their ‘habit’ of conceding too many goals says boss Enzo Maresca

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca says his side needs to get over their bad “habit” of conceding too many goals and quickly, after watching on as his side lost 2-1 to Real Madrid.

The defeat meant they ended their preseason tour of the US with one win, one draw and three defeats from their five games, but most worrying was the 12 goals conceded.

Last season they conceded 63 goals in just 38 Premier League matches, including five at Arsenal and four against Wolves, Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester City,

Maresca said he addressed the “very high” defensive line with his players in one of his first meetings, which he said is a habit “from last season” and add to that the emphasis on playing out from the back this season, then even more mistakes have been made.

City capitalised twice on defensive errors as they won 4-2 on Saturday.

“One of my first meetings with the squad was about the amount of goals we conceded last year with the defensive line very high,” said Maresca.

“We are not working on defensive lines so high. It’s a habit from last year, or years ago, I don’t know.

“We are trying to drop the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five metres, just to have some advantage.

“Last year, we already conceded many goals with this problem. Hopefully we can solve it very soon.”

It is not only his defensive issues that the new Chelsea boss needs to address, they are also short of options in attack as both Armando Broja and Romelu Lukaku look set to leave the club.

They have bought in Spanish youngster, Marc Guiu, 18, who was signed from Barcelona for £5m. He has started four of the US tour matches scoring once.

Nicolas Jackson is only just back in training, meaning the burden of scoring has fallen on Christopher Nkunku who has managed three goals so far.

Despite having a squad of 45 they currently have less strikers at the club than they do goalkeepers.

Maresca is keen to address this balance with talks ongoing to sign Atletico Madrid’s Samu Omorodion and interest in Napoli’s Victor Osimhen.

Chelsea kick off their Premier League campaign with a home match against City on Sunday 18 August.