Enzo Maresca demands Chelsea improvement after heavy Celtic defeat

Brendan Rodgers’s team completed their fifth match of pre-season before next week’s big kick-off in the Scottish Premiership. Photograph: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC/Getty Images

The Chelsea head coach, Enzo Maresca, said his players were still trying to adjust to his style and tactics after a 4-1 defeat against Celtic at their pre-season friendly in Indiana on Saturday.

Christopher Nkunku’s penalty in the 89th minute was the only con­solation for the Premier League side at the University of Notre Dame after Mikey Johnston had scored Celtic’s fourth goal.

It was Maresca’s second game in charge, after a 2-2 draw with the League One side Wrexham in Cali­fornia on Thursday.

“Off the ball we need to improve things,” Maresca said. “You can see sometimes we confuse when we need to play short and when we need to play a little bit longer but that is part of the process.

“We maintained a high line but when the ball is not under pressure, you need to drop … we are still ­confusing some things on the ball and off the ball. It is normal in this moment when we are trying to do something new.”

Chelsea had 23 shots to Celtic’s 14 and had almost two-thirds of the ­possession, but Brendan Rodgers’s team were playing their fifth match of pre-season after beating Manchester City 4-3 last time out.

“As we said, the result is always important,” Maresca said. “For us, we need to analyse the game in ­general. I think on the ball, the team were 10 times better than in the game against Wrexham and that is important because we can see the amount of chances we created first half and ­second half.

“The result is always important but in this moment we need to judge and analyse different things. On the ball we created chances, off the ball we probably conceded too much and that is something we need to improve.”

Rodgers said: “It was very ­pleasing, when you see the level of talent ­Chelsea had. At any top team you need a structure and you need to have talent. Very importantly, you need to have the mentality to win. I think we had that from the very first kick of the ball to the end. Everything was very synchronised, the pressing, the work in such hot conditions. I was so pleased.”

Despite the lacklustre results, Maresca said his team would be ready for their opening match of the Premier League season – against the champions, Manchester City – on 18 August.