While nobody had a particularly good night for Chelsea, ahead of facing Bournemouth on Saturday, Maresca singled out centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo for his mistake that led to Leeds’ third goal. The Italian was asked if the team’s lack of experience hurt them in Yorkshire, with captain Reece James, the suspended Moises Caicedo and more not in the starting XI. But he pointed out that the former Fulham defender was their oldest player, and that didn’t help him a great deal.
He said, via Football London: “Listen, we always talk about experience when we drop points. When we beat Barcelona, we drew against Arsenal, no one was mentioning about experienced players. So, again, I understand that when we don’t win, we are always looking for the reason why, but I think the reason why we didn’t win against Leeds is not because of the experience, it’s because we were not good enough. But we have experienced players. Unfortunately, they were not inside the pitch. One because he was suspended, the other one because of injury. So, it’s because in that moment, the ones that have more experience, they were out. Who is the oldest one for us in the pitch? Who was? Tosin. Did he play good? So, it’s not about experience. It’s about that 11 players, they were not good enough. I know that we are always looking for experience, but it was a bad game for all of us.”