Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has warned Noni Madueke to raise his training levels and put in more work to rack up goals and assists.
After being dropped to the bench against Aston Villa, Madueke returned to Chelsea’s starting lineup on Wednesday and contributed a goal and an assist in the comprehensive 5-1 victory over Southampton.
After the game, Maresca was asked for his feelings on Madueke’s response to being benched against Aston Villa and the Chelsea boss did not shy away from revealing the truth behind the winger’s omission.
“He can do much more,” Maresca began. “He can do much more. The moment he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit and the reason why he was not playing is because I do not like the way he trained.
“He has to understand that he has to train every day good. He has to be ambitious. He scored one tonight, he has to go for the second one and the third one. He has to give more assists.
“But overall, he is doing great, he is doing fantastic. He is doing even better in terms of numbers. Noni has to understand he has to work more because he can be much, much, much better.
“Noni is not allowed to drop because Pedro [Neto] is there and doing fantastic. If Pedro drops then Noni is there. The same thing on the other side. This is what they have to understand if we want to be there or be close for something important.”
Madueke was happy to praise Maresca’s impact on his game, hailing the Chelsea boss for putting so much effort into helping him improve.
“Me personally, just trust, a lot of faith in me, playing me pretty much all of the games,” Madueke told Amazon Prime. “He’s just helping me with my game, with my goalscoring, all aspects of trying to become a top wide player, so all credit to him and my teammates as well and all of us.
“It was a great win today and we’re going for more.”
The improvement in goal difference sees Chelsea leapfrog Arsenal into second in the Premier League table, closing the gap to leaders Liverpool to seven points after the Reds’ slip-up against Newcastle United.
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