Enzo Maresca
Enzo Maresca said “This is exactly what I was telling to you: I don’t think Cole knows Gianfranco [laughs]. But they are, to be honest, quite similar in terms of quality. I’m from Italy, so I know Gianfranco quite well. I said many times, for me, the best thing about Cole is that he has never changed. I had him three, four, five years ago and he is exactly the same way. We are happy to have him. I think it worked top. We tried to do something – we moved Reece to the left side and we also moved for the first game of the season, Cole to the left pocket and the reason was to try and attack on that side. Malo in the right pocket, I think it worked very well. Yeah, but I said many times, I spoke with Reece many times, even when he was injured. I really love and really like Reece. What I was saying the other day is from the captains I expected more, so from Reece and all the guys that are sometimes captain. You are captain for a reason and you have to show everyday. Then, inside the pitch, he is a top player. I think you can improve if you are not a guy who is always talking and is always helping. You are the way you are and this is almost impossible to change. What you can do is work on that and try to improve. With Reece, with Cole, with all the squad. We are quite young, we need to build leaders. Also, Levi was quite silent and then now he is always talking. Sometimes when you don’t have, you have to build a leader. It doesn’t mean you are going to change people, because no, but if they can improve on that and they can do something more, it’s good. Robert Sanchez’s distribution was not going where he wanted… He also did so many good [things]. In the end, that is football. I am the guy who asks Robert to do that. And Robert is going to do that. In the moment he stops to do that, he is not going to play. If Robert makes a mistake, it’s not Robert’s problem, it’s my mistake because I asked that from Robert. I am very happy with Robert and the way he is playing, building from the back. All the goal kicks we have and he passes the ball to Noni, and Pedro, that kind of ball that gives us many times chances to attack. Sometimes you make mistakes but it is not going to change the way we are going to play. There are games, especially today’s one, that if you do a basketball game, they would destroy us. Newcastle are strong, they are good, they have some good players in transition. The reason I was saying to calm was because this is the kind of game before you attack you need to make 15, 20 or 25 passes. If you want to attack with two passes, you are long distance, they recover the ball and they can cause problems. That is the reason I was shouting all game, ‘calm, calm, calm, make passes’ is because against them if you do up and down game, they destroy us. Romeo and Moi did very well. Enzo was inside but overall, I’m very happy with the performance today. The way we prepared the game, the plan, it was exactly there. Off the ball we fight together, they deserved three points. That’s important. Yeah, but the problem is if you are so quick, then you are going to concede quick attacks. It is not our idea. It is not our football. Today, Noni on one side, Pedro on the other, Cole in the pocket, Malo in the pocket, Nico there; they are all so good when they are making passes, passes, passes, we arrive in the last third and we can create chances and goals.”
