Chelsea could do with their own Alisson and Virgil van Dijk, Enzo Maresca has admitted, with the Blues boss also confirming they will uphold tradition by giving Liverpool a ‘deserved’ guard of honour.
Sunday will see the new champions arrive at Stamford Bridge with Maresca saying he would love to mirror their opponents’ success.
His counterpart Arne Slot has benefitted from having seniority in his team, with Van Dijk leading their defence and being tied down to a new deal.
Asked if Chelsea need to purchase experienced players like Alisson and Van Dijk for Liverpool, Maresca said: ‘For sure, if you want to close the gap with these kind of clubs then, for sure, you have to do things.
‘Our team next season will be better also in terms of experience, because this season has been one more year together.
‘There are ones who are growing, like Levi [Colwill] for instance.
Liverpool’s Alisson and Virgil van Dijk have become examples for the rest of the league
Maresca has tipped defender Levi Colwill to improve as he gains more experience
Enzo Maresca said Liverpool deserve the traditional guard of honour for their efforts this year
‘He is growing a lot in terms of leadership.
‘For sure, next year he will be better and better.
‘Hopefully the ones that we have, they can grow and help us in terms of experience.
‘The [Legia] Warsaw game, we won 3-0 there and at home we struggled, and that has been a good experience.
‘But you have to go through this moment to learn.
‘Now we can say, “OK guys, it’s already happened. It’s not going to happen again.”
‘Otherwise that means there’s a problem. We need that kind of experience to improve.’
On the guard of honour, Maresca added: ‘Yes. It’s tradition. We have to do that, and we are going to do that.
Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions with five games to spare last weekend
Chelsea boss Marseca says there is still a clear gap between the Blues and the champions
‘They won the Premier League, so they deserve it.
‘In terms of the gap [between Chelsea and Liverpool], it is there, you can see this clearly.
‘My feeling is we are [moving] in the right direction and hopefully this gap can be smaller and smaller and smaller.
‘The difference is they have been consistent compared to us.
‘For part of the season, we were very good, then we lost some games.
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‘This has probably been the main reason why.
‘And also in terms of experienced players that know how to win games and these kinds of things, I think they have something more compared to us.’
Chelsea are as good as into the Conference League final after their 4-1 away win at Djurgarden in the semi-final first leg.
With next week’s second leg set to be a formality, their full focus will be on securing a top-five finish in the Premier League, though Maresca also dismissed any idea that Liverpool will turn up jaded from their title celebrations.
