‘The club knows what I think’ – Maresca says he wants new Chelsea signing

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca says he has told the club that he wants to sign a new central defender this summer.

The Blues lost Levi Colwill to a potentially season-ending injury, after rupturing his ACL.

Wesley Fofana, meanwhile, has not played since undergoing hamstring surgery last season, while Benoit Badiashile is also recovering from an injury.

“We are trying to find solutions internally but the club know exactly what I think and we’ll see what happens,” Maresca said.

“I think we need a central defender but we are also looking internally for the solutions. But as I said, the club knows what I think.”

Expanding on why he wants to sign a new defender, Maresca says it is because of how Chelsea play out from the back, as well as because of the injury problems in his squad.

“When we build, we build with Levi in the middle,” he said. “The player in the middle is different to the player on the left side. Last year we played 64 games and we played 64 games with Levi and Tosin (in that role).

“Now Levi is out, the only one who can do that job well is Tosin. But we have Premier League, Champions League. The rest, they can adapt.

“We have players in this moment, unfortunately, that have some problems like Wes (Fofana) and Benoit (Badiashile). This is the reason why I said the club knows exactly what I think about central defenders.”