Enzo Maresca has been speaking ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League clash against Liverpool
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has revealed he once gave up Christmas to watch 38 Liverpool matches in a single week. The Stamford Bridge club make the trip to Anfield this afternoon.
Maresca’s side have enjoyed a strong start to the season; however, in the shape of the Reds, Chelsea will be coming up against a Liverpool team that has lost just once in all competitions so far this campaign.
And speaking ahead of the game at Anfield, Maresca revealed that after hanging up his boots in 2017, he chose to spend an entire festive season glued to an entire season’s worth of Jurgen Klopp’s brand of heavy metal football at Anfield.
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“It was Christmas, I still remember,” he revealed. “I was watching different kinds of work to understand and see how the best teams think.
“It was four or five years ago. I’d finished playing and started as a manager. I watched 38 games of Liverpool in one week – to study and analyse how they were with their previous manager, in terms of the pressing and this kind of thing.
“So I really know Liverpool players because I watched them many, many, many times. That team, the first one, two, three years of Klopp, and the way they were pressing was especially good because of Salah, (Roberto) Firmino and (Sadio) Mane.
“Not only on the ball. It was off the ball, the way they were aggressive was something unbelievable. I really like Salah not only because he is good on the ball but because he’s fantastic off it.”
