Enzo Maresca thinks critics of his Chelsea side's recent defensive record are being unrealistic.
The Blues haven't kept a clean sheet in the Premier League since beating West Ham United 3-0 in mid-September, conceding seven in their last seven games.
Despite their recent struggles shutting up shop, however, only five sides – Liverpool, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, and Manchester United – have conceded fewer goals in the top flight this season.
Speaking to the press ahead of Chelsea's trip to Leicester City on Saturday, Maresca said he doesn't understand "why people are thinking" that his team "are defending bad."
"If people think we are not going to concede any goals, that is only on the PlayStation, not real football," he said.
"We are going to concede goals until the end, for sure, 100 per cent," added the Italian coach. "We decide in which way we are going to risk conceding goals, but in the end you are always going to concede goals."
One of the main ways Chelsea have been risking conceding goals has been by playing out from the back.
While for the most part, it has worked, on occasion, it hasn't.
Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez has made a number of high profile errors while trying to play out with his feet this season, including in Chelsea's victories over Brighton and Newcastle.
Despite those errors, and the criticism of Sanchez that has followed, Maresca has insisted that he doesn't want the Spaniard to stop it.
"It’s football and I’m the guy who asks Robbie to do that," Maresca said of Sanchez after the Blues' win over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge last month.
"Robbie is going to do that because the moment he stops, he isn’t going to play," he explained. "If he makes a mistake, it’s not Robbie’s problem, it’s my problem, my mistake, because I ask that of him."
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