Chelsea 'struggled physically' against Celtic as Blues head coach Enzo Maresca reacts to pre-season thrashing

Chelsea failed to impress yet again as Maresca led the Blues for the second time in a friendly against Celtic at the Notre Dame Stadium in Indiana. Chelsea came into the clash looking to brush off their 2-2 draw against League One side Wrexham, however, what awaited them was a much worse thrashing as Celtic swept Maresca's side apart. The Italian boss believes the parity in performances comes due to the difference in physical preparation between the two sides with Celtic already having played five friendlies.

Speaking to club media, Marseca said: "The result is always important [but] for sure at this moment, we need to analyse the game in general. On the ball, the team was ten times better than we were against Wrexham because we could see the amount of chances we had in the first half and the second half. Off the ball, for sure, we need to improve things. You can see that sometimes we are confused when we need to play short and when we need to play a little bit longer but that is part of the process.

"For me, it is important to realise the difference between us and them in the physical conditioning. You can see they had already played four games in pre-season and they are starting their official season very soon. Whereas for us, we struggled a little bit physically.

"The biggest difference between us and them was the physical condition. It is very clear they are ready to start [their league season] and we have just had our second [pre-season] game and some of our players have only played 45 minutes so the difference was huge."

While he claimed the loss was down to the difference in preparation, he also agreed that there were a few key issues with his side's performances on the night apart from their physical conditioning.

He said: "For sure we need to improve many things off the ball. As you said, one of the things we did badly today was when the ball was not under pressure, we maintained a high line but when the ball is not under pressure, you need to drop.

"We are still confusing some things on the ball and off the ball. It is normal in this moment when we are trying to do something new but game-by-game and training session after training session, we are going to be ready [for the start of the Premier League season]."

The Blues will take on Club America on Wednesday, July 31 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and can expect another mismatch in terms of physical preparations with the Mexican side already in the middle of their regular season in the Liga MX Apertura. However, Maresca will hope to see a better showing from his men.