(Video): “The reason why we struggled is…” – Enzo Maresca gives out of character response to poor first half

Enzo Maresca has just taken his post match press conference after the win over Bournemouth, and was very clear on “the reason why we struggled” in the first half of the game.

“We didn’t win duels, we didn’t win second balls. In this stadium, against this team, above all you have to show the desire to win duels,” Maresca said.

It’s interesting to hear a manager associated more with dogmatic, tactical side of the game basically call out his players for being soft and sloppy in the first half. Maresca does seem to have that edge to him, which is pleasing. He needs to coach it into his players too. He’s right, they were timid and ended up second best far too often last night.

You can see the manager speaking in the clip embedded here: