On the half-hour mark of the friendly between Chelsea and Real Madrid in Charlotte on Sunday, the Blues found themselves behind by two goals yet again.
It was a familiar place for Chelsea to be, looking up at the scoreboard and finding themselves trailing, as defensive errors loomed large amidst their third defeat in five preseason matches on the USA summer tour.
Chelsea conceded the first goal of the match in four of their five games on this tour, and fell 2-0 down in three of them.
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New manager Enzo Maresca has carried over the extremely high line which former manager Mauricio Pochettino desperately tried to install last season in what was an ultimately futile attempt to build towards a long-term project. Maresca has looked to use the slight progress they showed over the course of the campaign, but it is still causing serious issues.
"It's a problem that we are trying to solve from the preseason since day one," Maresca said after the Real Madrid defeat. "One of my first meetings with the players in the squad was the amount of goals that we conceded last year with the defensive line very high. It's something we are trying to work."
Both goals Chelsea conceded came on line-breaking vertical passes, one by Rodrygo and one by Vinicius Jr, two world-class players with such capabilities.
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Chelsea, for their part, carved Real Madrid open on a number of occasions as well, but fell short in the finishing department, contributing to their deficit. Christopher Nkunku, Noni Madueke, and Marc Guiu were all positive in the match, and they created numberous goal scoring opportunities even as Raheem Sterling struggled to make his own impact. Maresca was less worried about that phase of the game.
"Offensively, the team is there, because the parts they are there," Maresca said after the match. "We created chances, the problem has been defensively. When I say defensively it's not just the defensive line, in general it's all the players."
Once Chelsea fell behind, they seemed to grasp the defensive instructions a bit more emphatically, and limited the La Liga side's chances from there. Yet that must be taken with a grain of salt, as the final half-hour of the match boasted little attacking impetus from either side as both clubs were eager to finish off a grueling preseason tour without expensing further energy.
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Maresca says that if the club is to achieve anything of note this season and revive Chelsea back to Premier League contenders, it will need to come from improvements along the back.
"Any team that they want to do something, to win games or compete, they have to work in the right way defensively," Maresca said. "It's difficult when you concede one goal or two, always coming from behind. Today again, the first five minutes we had two clear chances, but when you concede and you are one behind, two behind it becomes difficult. Overall, in terms in the things that we are doing and are improving, I'm quite happy."
Chelsea return home to England now, with one more preseason match against Inter Milan at Stamford Bridge before opening the Premier League season with a massive tilt against Man City on August 18.
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