Every word Enzo Maresca said on Postecoglou sacked, Nottingham Forest win, Chelsea red cards

Enzo Maresca has just completed his post-match press conference following Chelsea's 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest this afternoon.

Goals in the second-half from Josh Acheampong, Pedro Neto and Reece James were enough for the Blues to take three points away from Forest, who have just sacked Ange Postecoglou. The decision to part company with the former Tottenham boss was taken immediately after the match, meaning he did not even come out for his post-match press conference.

Maresca did, though, and below you can read the full transcript:

• Acheampong dazzles, Neto shines, £40m star very poor - Chelsea player ratings vs Nottingham Forest
• Enzo Maresca press conference - Chelsea boss on Postecoglou sacked, Acheampong and red card

What is your reaction to Postecoglou being sacked?

I didn't speak with Ange. I didn't see him, but I just said I feel very sorry for him. But I've said many times, this is a business where if you don't win a game, the consequence for all of us is exactly the same. So, sorry for him.

What was it like for you watching from the director's box?

Very bad. Very bad feeling to be there. I prefer to be in the dugout, to be honest. But, yeah, we won the game. I think in the first-half we struggled a little bit. Off the ball I think we were good. On the ball we made some mistakes where we conceded some moments to them. Second-half we were much, much better. For sure, we can do better in terms of red card. That is a mistake, 3-0, already one yellow card, we can avoid that.

At the same time, I have to say that the desire from the players, to not concede a goal. It's important also, in the last four or five minutes they were shouting at each other, 'don't concede, don't concede'. So, the second yellow card from us, for sure we can avoid that. But also show the desire that they were playing for a clean sheet, they don't want to concede nothing. And it's important also this.

Are you concerned with the amount of red cards?

Again, it's something that we can do better, but I'm not concerned. I know that there are some of you that say, why is he not concerned? I'm not concerned, because I like to analyse. It's a moment that we consider a red card, yes. We can avoid that, yes, for sure we can avoid that.

But also for me, the desire of the players is important. Today, with 3-0, 90 minutes the game is finished. Malo [Gusto] can avoid that, because it's useless to make a second foul on a yellow card, for sure. But also the good part is, Malo is showing that he doesn't want to concede nothing. They don't want to concede a goal, they are playing for a clean sheet. It's the balance, we can avoid that for sure.

You made three half-time subs. Did you get the team selection wrong?

I always try to do my best. Sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I'm right. But in this moment, it's more about protecting players. We already knew that Romeo [Lavia] was not going to play 90 minutes.

Romeo's plan was 45 minutes. Moi [Caicedo] cannot play 90 minutes, so the decision was to start with Moi or start with Romeo. And Romeo needs confidence, he needs a boost, he needs to start the game. So that was the plan. Then Garna [Garnacho] did a fantastic game against Liverpool. So it was good to give him again the chance.

Jamie [Gittens] came on, he was okay. And I think Marc Guiu was good. But also we planned the game expecting them back four, not back five. I think back four with Joao Pedras at No.9 is better. With back five, Joao Pedro at No.9 is not... If you remember, West Ham away; back five, we played Liam Delap and Joao Pedro against a back five. So we expected them back four, but they were back five. And then after half-time, we changed.

What did you make of Josh Acheampong's performance and Marc Guiu's impact?

I think he [Guiu] was on for 15 minutes against Liverpool, fighting with Van Dijk, Konate, Gravenberch, and he was very good. Today, after one minute of the second half, he won a corner against Morato. So we need that from Marc.

And Josh, as you said, I already said many times that I really like Josh. We showed him confidence last season. And he's doing well. And it's important also that when you have Levi [Colwill] out or Tosin [Adarabioyo] out, that the other ones are ready. We need balance for Josh, because he's obviously 19 and still developing, but he needs minutes to develop even more.

He needs to improve for sure. I think it's our duty as a coaching staff, it's my duty as a manager to try to help the players to improve. Because we said many times, if we improve the players, we improve the team. So we are doing exactly the same with Josh. We work every day to try to improve him and to improve the team.

Were you angry at half-time?

No, my message at half-time was, guys, off the ball, the way we are pressing, we are good. On the ball, we are not good enough. Because first half, we made three or four mistakes in the build-up, when we conceded. Like you say, lazy? What do you say in English? Lazy? Lazy. Yeah, I think the word is lazy. No, anyway, lazy mistake. We can avoid that.

And second half, I think also we adjusted a little bit. And we were a little bit better.

What's the Italian word you want to translate as lazy? We'll look it up.

Yeah, I don't think it's lazy. It's sloppy. Sloppy. We looked sloppy in the build-up. We made some mistakes that were not good enough.

Why were Enzo Fernandez and Wesley Fofana not here?

No, yeah, Enzo had small problem. A small problem that at the moment we are not able to say if he can be available for Ajax or not. And Wes is just a way to try to protect a little bit him.

For me, Wes is the same as Josh. I said many times that I really like Wes and he's going to play games. But it was just to protect. He will be available for Ajax.

When you say protected, are you protecting?

In general. I think with Wes, what do we need to do with Wes, with Romeo, with Reece, is we need to do what we have done with Reece. Now Reece is playing three games a week, he's playing almost every game, he's fit, he's good. And we need to try to do exactly the same with Wes and with Romeo. I would love to have inside the pitch every game Romeo, Wes and Reece. But it's not possible. It's not possible, we need to manage them. And the main target this season is try to rotate and keep all of them fit.