Maresca says he ‘fell in love’ with Chelsea star after performance against Legia Warsaw and explains Palmer substitution | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca says youngster Josh Acheampong’s performance against Legia Warsaw convinced him that he can become a “fantastic player” for Chelsea.

A first Chelsea goal for Tyrique George and a double off the bench from Noni Madueke handed the Blues a 3-0 win in their Conference League quarter-final first leg.

Both Acheampong and George were named in the starting line-up and Maresca praised the pair, particularly Acheampong.

“Very happy first of all for the Chelsea academy because it’s one of our boys from the academy so very happy for him,” he said when asked about George’s first Chelsea goal.

“He was quite good first half, take responsibility, second half in the middle probably was a bit better but the one that I fall in love tonight is Josh Acheampong because for me potentially he can be fantastic player, top player for this club, for the football in general and a good player show you that can play in different position and he can do good.

“He was full-back, good, midfielder, good, central defender, good, so it’s not about I play in that position or in that position, if you are good player you can be in different position.”

Cole Palmer was also named in Maresca’s starting line-up but was taken off at half-time with the score level at 0-0.

But Maresca eased concerns by revealing that there was no injury problem for the 22-year-old and that it was a pre-planned decision.

“We planned for him and Tosin to come off on 45 minutes,” he said. “Everything is fine.”

Despite the victory, it proved to be another difficult outing for Christopher Nkunku who missed a second-half penalty for his side.

And Maresca admits the Frenchman is suffering from a lack of confidence at the moment.

“Probably in this moment is lack of confidence and the reason why is because he’s missing goal or penalty like tonight but the only way to deal with that is to work hard every day because when you work hard for sure the reward is important, the problem is when you stop to work and the good thing about Christoph is that he’s working well every day.”