There was a smile on the face of Enzo Maresca that did not quite tally with the frustration he was about to admit.
The Chelsea manager had been asked about Noni Madueke, dropped for Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Aston Villa, but back in the side here at Southampton and responding in good style, with a goal and an assist.
“In the moment that he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit,” Maresca said. “The reason he was not playing [against Aston Villa] is because I don’t like the way he trained. He has to understand that he has to train every day good, he has to be ambitious.”
Maresca has not been afraid of criticising his players in public, most notably when calling out captain Reece James over a lack of leadership earlier this season.
Nor has he missed an opportunity privately to remind them of the standards he expects. In the case of Jadon Sancho, they were laid bare in a phone call before the would-be loanee even signed.
Madueke’s development, though, increasingly feels something of a pet project for Maresca, whose frustration is born of belief in a player that has played a more prominent part than might have been expected when Pedro Neto, Joao Felix and Sancho were all signed last summer.
“With Noni, I have a personal relation, in terms of he can do much more,” the Italian explained. “Overall, he’s doing great, he’s doing fantastic. But Noni has to understand he has to work more because he can be much, much, much better.”
The pattern of Madueke’s season backs up Maresca’s theory that he is a better player when he has a point to prove.
What remains the standout performance came on the second weekend at Wolves, where he fired a hat-trick after being left an unused substitute against Manchester City on the opening day.
More recently, he excelled in back-to-back starts during Lee Carsley’s final England games, knowing the urgent need to state a case before Thomas Tuchel’s arrival and Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer’s respective returns.
And now, this energetic riposte, with both goals that the 22-year-old was involved in coming while Southampton had 11 men on the pitch and the game was not yet dead.
At 1-1, Madueke pounced on some characteristic Saints dallying to win possession before nudging unselfishly to Christopher Nkunku to find an empty net.
His own goal, to make it 3-1 before half-time, was the right-footed left-winger’s trademark, cutting in and picking out the far corner.
It is the kind of goal Madueke has the tools to score more frequently, particularly since his ability to shift right and get to the byline keeps full-backs guessing and does not allow them to overcompensate.
In truth, he should have had at least one more of some kind or another here, denied twice by Joe Lumley and once by Ryan Manning’s desperate block.
“If he scores one tonight, he has to go for the second one, the third one,” Maresca added. “He has to be ambitious.”
Still, Madueke now has seven league goals and assists combined this season, as many as in the entirety of last term.
Following the assist for Palmer’s third off the bench against Villa, he has also been involved in goals in successive league matches for the first time in almost a year.
Consistency over the next month will be key to holding down a shirt, particularly with Sancho back in the fold and making another positive impression in his scoring cameo here.
Between his opening day benching against City and being axed against Villa, Madueke kept his place for 11 consecutive league games, despite scoring only one goal in that time.
Having seen the impact of this kick up the backside, you can be sure Maresca will not entertain a similar dry spell for quite so long.
