Every word Enzo Maresca said on Cole Palmer form, Reece James comments, Chelsea defeat

Enzo Maresca has just wrapped up his post-match press conference after Chelsea were beaten 2-1 at home to Legia Warsaw in the Conference League quarter-final second leg.

The Blues have progressed on aggregate after scoring three goals without reply in Poland last week, but the head-coach was understandably asked a lot about the performance on Thursday evening. Here is the full transcript from Maresca's presser...

Enzo, how worried are you by the performance tonight?

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"First of all, yeah, we are for sure not happy with the defeat. Probably the first leg, 0-3, probably we try to manage a little bit the result, rotate, make rotation with the players, try to avoid injury, because we have an important game also Sunday. So, as I said, for sure not happy with the result.

"We are in the semi-final, but at the same time probably we were trying to manage a little bit the first leg, the result, we are there. But overall, the good thing is that we can rotate players, we don't have injury, that for us was the main target, because during the season we had many injuries, an important moment, and because it's an important moment now, the last part of the season, the good news was that we don't have injury."

You talked about rotation, it looked like a very strong line-up, certainly attack-wise, what was your thinking about playing Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson?

"No, the idea was just for them, especially for Nico, Nico has been more than two months out, so the idea to play with him is to continue to build a little bit the physical condition for him, so the idea was for him 45 minutes, we planned already that, and for Cole, he had a small problem before the international break, so again, for him it was to use him 45 minutes, one hour, and then just to give them a little bit tempo and improve that and be better Sunday on the game."

Was part of it also to get Cole and Nico goals, because they've been on quite long goal droughts now as well?

"Yeah, first of all the main target for them was to help them to build physical condition, so we decided to use both of them, and for sure if they are able to score, it could be a good boost for them, but for me probably we managed in the wrong way the first result there, but the good thing is again, we have six Premier League games that are very important for us, fortunately we rotate players, and this is for us in this moment very important."

How important is it and how worried are you that the strikers aren't scoring enough goals for Cole, is it the same for Nico, is it the same for Christopher Nkunku as well?

"Yeah no, especially the ones that we are missing, unfortunately they are very easy goals, because again I think tonight in the first five minutes we had two chances, but it can happen, hopefully very soon Nico and Cole can start to score goals because they are very important for us. In this moment the one that is scoring more goals for us is Cucu, and that means a good thing because he's not the one that has to score goals."

The Legia manager just now said he felt it wasn't a noisy or intimidating stadium and that helped his players, what have you got to do in this run-in now to get this Stamford Bridge crowd behind you?

"No, I think for me tonight the environment was good, I didn't see any bad moments from the fans, so I said already after the last game we need to engage them, so it's what we have to do."

The deeper you get into this competition, what are you and the players learning?

"It's a learning process, especially because of the amount of games we have this season, so even for me personally it's a learning process because you have to play every three days, you have to decide when you rotate players, the reason why you rotate players, so overall it's a great experience also for me.

"As you said, we are in the last part, now we have six Premier League games plus the semi-finals, so at the moment we have eight games to go and they are all, for different reasons, all finals for us, and hopefully winning on Sunday gives us a good boost for the final part."

Reece James just said he feels that the players maybe disrespected the competition tonight, are you worried about their mindset at all?

"Probably not the competition, but probably the other team tonight, because I think we respect the competition all season, probably tonight, as I said, because of the first result, 0-3, so you can manage in the wrong way the result, so for sure Reece is right, but more than the competition probably the opposite."

Are you concerned at all in terms of going through to the semi-final with that approach to games like this?

"No, because first of all in the semi-final we have to play both games, so the reason why they are there is because they are doing well, so you cannot underestimate any team. Something that we didn't do since we started with all the teams that we face."

Yesterday you obviously asked for the fans to trust you, do you feel like tonight is a bit of a setback in terms of you wanting them to do that? And secondly, in terms of the teams around you in the race for the Champions League, do you feel like there's more of a confidence in the other teams compared with Chelsea right now?

"No, for sure in terms of setback, for sure it's a setback tonight for us, no doubt, first of all because we lost the game. But I said yesterday, I think probably the other clubs, as you said, in this moment they can feel more confidence around them, not only Aston Villa, Newcastle, all the clubs around us, but this is football and can change very quickly, so it depends a lot on us. As I said, Sunday for us is one of the finals, and winning that game can give us a final boost to reach our target.

"So in this moment, you win games, you see yourself and you are very happy. If you don't win, no-one is thinking that you can finish in the right way, but for me it's just how we manage the emotion."