Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has urged fans to trust him and says the team is improving under his leadership.
The Italian, 45, saw his team jeered by some fans while they were losing at home to Ipswich on Sunday in a game where they eventually came back to draw 2-2.
After the match, the coach accused supporters of creating an environment that forced the team to lose its way – amid criticism of his tactics, style of play and insistence to play out from the back.
When asked whether he trusts his football can entertain Chelsea’s fans, Maresca said: “I am not able to do a different style.
“The message [is] that with [the] fans [behind us] we are a better team. I completely understand that, as a team, we have to engage our fans. That’s something that on Sunday we were not able to do, especially for those 20 or 25 minutes. It is also on us to be good enough to engage our fans.”
One of Chelsea’s pre-season targets was to qualify for the Champions League but Sunday’s draw has seen the club drop into sixth in the Premier League table.
With a top-five finish now needed to reach Europe’s top competition, Maresca sought to further defend his record as Chelsea manager so far, adding: “I think we proved this season [that we are progressing] even if sometimes from the outside it is difficult to see.
“In the last two years Chelsea has been in the top four zero times. This season we have been in the top four for most of the season. I don’t know why – I wasn’t here last season or two years ago – I am not judging those seasons, just this season.
“But I think the fans have to trust us, the team and what the club is doing now because if in the last two seasons Chelsea was not in the top four and this season Chelsea was in the top four most of the year – that’s big proof the team is improving and doing the right things.
“For me, is that enough? No, because I would like to fight for titles, fight for the Premier League and Champions League.”
Chelsea’s next chance to impress the fans is a Uefa Conference League quarter-final second leg against Legia Warsaw at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues 3-0 up from the first leg in Poland.
“We can reach a European semi-final, which, yes, it isn’t the Champions League but it is still a European competition. It’s quite clear the direction and style is the right one,” added Maresca.
“Before Ipswich, we were the third best defenders and fourth or fifth best attackers. After Ipswich, we are upset and we are going to try to win more games to reach the Champions League spot.”
On jeers from the fans, defender Malo Gusto added: “For sure you hear this on the pitch and at the end you can say to yourself that the fans were not behind us. But we play for Chelsea, we’re all here, we all come to the stadium to support this team.”