Enzo Maresca won’t ‘punish’ Chelsea players over spate of red cards

Enzo Maresca says he will not be meting out punishments to improve discipline in his Chelsea squad despite a slew of red cards over the past month.

Malo Gusto was the latest Blues player to get his marching orders after committing a second bookable offence during Saturday’s 3-0 win at Nottingham Forest. The manager watched from the stands after receiving a red card of his own against Liverpool two weeks prior.

It’s the fourth consecutive game Chelsea have had a man sent off and the fifth red in their last six games in all competitions. Robert Sanchez and Trevoh Chalobah were sent off in Premier League defeats to Manchester United and Brighton respectively, while Joao Pedro received a late red against Benfica in the UEFA Champions League. The Brazilian forward will miss Wednesday night’s game against Ajax as a result.

“For sure, it’s something we can do better,” Maresca admitted in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

“I think with some of the red cards, we could avoid that. For instance, I think the Malo [Gusto] one is completely avoidable because the game is almost finished. As I said after the Nottingham game, the other side, they do not want to concede and they want to continue to be aggressive.

“For sure, when you concede five or six red cards, I don’t know exactly how many, for sure that is something you have to improve.”

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Enzo Maresca won’t ‘punish’ Chelsea players over spate of red cards

Maresca added that rather than punish his players to instil discipline in his ranks, he wants to teach them to do better in the future.

“Personally, I’m not that kind of manager to punish players,” the Italian said. “In my view, I don’t think it is the right way to do things. I prefer to help them understand and then from there, do the right things.

“Joao Pedro red card against Benfica was the last minutes of the game. Malo Gusto was last minutes of the game. So it depends. They are different kinds of red cards, but it is something you have to do better.”

Maresca continued: “I have four kids, when they do something wrong, I do not punish them. I try to teach them to do the right things. I try to do this with the players too. This is the way I like to do things.”

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