Maresca on Chelsea pride, Palladino study and Atalanta danger

Enzo Maresca gives injury updates for Chelsea, feels Atalanta have inspired tactical changes in Serie A and reveals Raffaele Palladino ‘studied some of our training sessions’ this year.

The Champions League meeting kicks off at the New Balance Arena in Bergamo on Tuesday at 20.00 GMT.

Chelsea won the Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup last season, but have had mixed results in the Champions League so far this term, able to beat Barcelona 3-0 and draw 2-2 with Qarabag.

Injuries continue to pile up, with Cole Palmer and Liam Delap not in the travelling party.

“He had been out for a couple of months, now he is coming back, but can’t play every three days yet. He played an hour last week and the idea is to protect him from any relapses,” Maresca told Sky Sport Italia.

“We had a few injury problems, possibly also as a result of last season being very long. Delap had some issues, he returned and now has a new shoulder problem, Cole had a problem too.

“We’ll try to do what we’ve been doing in every game, which is to give our best and keep going.”

Reece James and Wesley Fofana are both in the squad and could feature tomorrow.

Palladino took over the Atalanta job from sacked Ivan Juric on November 11, but his connection with Maresca goes way back to their playing days at Juventus.

“When I arrived at Juve, Raffaele was there with Gasperini as the coach in the youth team, and every now and then he’d come to the senior squad.

“Before he took over Atalanta, he came to London to study some of our training sessions, we stayed in contact, so yes we know each other well.”

Both Juric and Palladino were proteges of former Atalanta coach Gasperini, who has now moved to Roma after nine years in Bergamo.

“There are always risks, Atalanta are a very aggressive team who play a particular type of football, we’ll try to do our best to get the win.”

Gasperini’s inspiration spread far and wide in Italian football, something that the Chelsea coach recognises.

“I think Serie A changed a lot, from different points of view. The main one probably is in terms of tactical, now many teams they try to, not to copy, but they try to do something similar, what Atalanta has done in the last years with Gasperini, so you can see most of the team played five at the back, most of the team tried to play man-to-man everywhere, if you go to the toilet, they follow you everywhere, but it’s for sure in that aspect, it changed a lot compared to when I was a football player.”

Maresca was asked if he could one day return to Italy as a coach at one of the big clubs, considering he only had a brief spell at Parma lasting 14 games in 2021.

“At this moment, I represent one of the most important clubs in the world, which is Chelsea. I am truly happy. After that, what might happen after a week, a month, three or six months, nobody knows, but we’ll see in future.”

Speaking in the press conference, Maresca was also pressed on what he misses the most about Italy, and the response was somewhat inevitable.

“The food. I have, when I have spare time, it’s almost impossible, I’m a good chef, I like to be, I like to teach. It’s like a passion for me, so I love food.

“I can do different dishes, but especially the one from, the one that you struggle to find in a restaurant, because they are very, very typical from my mum, from my grandma, you know, so this kind of dish.”