Michael Emenalo has leapt to the defence Chelsea new manager, Antonio Conte, after losing his first game in charge to Rapid Vienna 0-2 in Saturday’s pre-season friendly.
The Chelsea technical believes that Conte needs time settle into his new role as manager of the club.
Emenalo also explained that the Italian could need time to influence “his methods” on the Chelsea playing personnel though he acknowledged that his experience will come through for him.
“The only thing that is difficult for him (Conte) is that he’s just come from working with players who understood his methods and it was probably easy. Coming from that and going into a completely different new arena to try to introduce your methods again is a little bit disconcerting. But he is an experienced manager and understood that. We all know that it will take time.
“We have a mix of players at different stages of their physical development in terms of the preseason. ll in all, it’s a good test. The next three days will be much better and in a couple of weeks we should be ready,” the former Nigeria defender said.
Chelsea will begin their English Premier League season against West Ham in a London derby on August 15.
