Up Against An Aggressive Team’ – Maresca Previews WBA
Wednesday’s 1-1 scoreline saw City leave south Yorkshire disappointed, especially given the timing of Sheffield Wednesday’s late equaliser. This weekend, though, offers an opportunity to produce an improved display on the road, with the Baggies standing in the way of a 15th Sky Bet Championship victory for the league leaders.
A testing schedule
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Maresca referenced the lack of preparation time between matches, with the trip across the Midlands coming less than 72 hours after meeting the Owls.
“It’s very difficult,” the Italian admitted to reporters. “It is what it is, and we need to adapt, we need to do it in the best way we can. But I don’t think it’s normal to play Wednesday night and then 12:30pm on Saturday. Especially when your opponent played on Tuesday.
“That short period is a huge difference, 24 hours, but when there are so many games, it’s almost impossible to ask the players for the same level, the same physicality, the same attention, because they are human.
“There is a schedule that we need to respect, and we cannot complain and not play the game. For me, it’s more about giving the other team 24 more hours. If we played Wednesday night and the opposition also played Wednesday night, it doesn’t matter as we both have the same recovery.
“But when the other team have 24 more hours to recover, it makes a difference. This time it happens against us but hopefully it can be with us in the future.”
‘It’s a process’
Despite seeing the lead at the top cut to just one point, performances in the three league defeats this term have warranted more, Maresca believes, with the level dropping off at Hillsborough in midweek. There are no major concerns, though, following a first stalemate of the season.
“Until now we have lost four games,” the former Manchester City coach explained. “One in the Carabao Cup against Liverpool and in the three games in the Championship. We didn’t deserve to lose against Hull City, or against Boro or Leeds.
“But for sure we didn’t deserve to win against Sheff Weds so the result was the correct one. We had chances and I don‘t think we had our best performance. When you play this amount of games, it’s not about the changes.
“It’s difficult to pay attention to what we have to do on the ball and off the ball. We need to improve many things. It was a game where if we had maintained the ball for two minutes, we need to maintain the ball for four minutes, more passing.
“Sometimes we were too quick. We needed to be calmer, but it’s a process. After Sheffield, I prefer two points more but at the same time we need to analyse the performance and I think the draw was correct.”
Ready for a huge test
West Brom are the Championship’s in-form team having won five out of their last six matches, a record which has seen the Midlands club rise up into the play-off positions under Carlos Corberán.
“The team in this moment is very intense,” Maresca said, analysing Saturday’s opponents. “They are the kind of team that with the way they play, there are some moments of the season that were very intense.
“Because they have such a high intensity, it’s impossible to maintain that for the full season, so sometimes they drop a little bit but at the moment that we face them, they are on top. We try to be ready for tomorrow.
“I saw them many times. They try to be aggressive when our ‘keeper has the ball for a goal-kick, but in open play they drop in their own half. They wait for the moment to press but they are not man-to-man orientated on the pitch. But for sure, in this moment, they are very intense and very good.
“We always try to win games; it doesn’t matter whether it’s home or away or every three days. We’re going to try and go there and win the game. Off the ball and on the ball, we will prepare some things but there is not much time to prepare. So we’re going to try and be ready.”