Chelsea were thoroughly beaten 3-1 at Elland Road, with Leeds outrunning and outplaying their opponents on the night.
Maresca began, "Since the end of the game, I didn't see the players because we came back from Leeds yesterday afternoon. I will see the players soon and we will have time to focus on tomorrow's game.
"I didn't see the players yesterday but I watched the game back. We did many things bad. Probably we also paid the price of playing with 10 men against Arsenal for an hour. Leeds away can be more complicated in some ways than other games."
Asked if Leeds exposed a lack of leadership inside his young squad, Maresca bristled.
He continued: "It's not that. I love the young squad, I love the young players and the squad I have.
"One of the regrets I have after the game is that I didn't play with Josh (Acheampong). The reason why we played with Trevoh (Chalobah), Benoit (Badiashile) and Tosin (Adarabioyo) was because we saw long balls to their strikers, but even that, we lost most of them."
On the performance against Leeds, Maresca conceded: "I was very surprised, no doubt, because I expect more in general in all the aspects. We analysed all the small details, and we were aware we played against Arsenal with 10 men for one hour. In some moments we struggled, but not for the entire game."
Trip to Dean Court
Meanwhile, turning to the trip to Bournemouth, Maresca expects a similar intensity at Dean Court as they experienced at Elland Road.
He said: "Bournemouth will be a similar game to Leeds, that is why we need to be better. Leeds was very intense and were better than us in all the aspects. Hopefully we can learn from that and be better tomorrow.
"We are always talking about experience when we drop points but when we beat Barcelona and drew with Arsenal, no one is talking about experienced players. This was not the reason. We have experienced players, one that was suspended and one who has an injury. Who was the most experienced player for us in the week? Tosin. Did he play good? So it is not about experience."
Protecting the core
Maresca also admits he's having to manage his senior group given their long-term injury records.
The Italian says he'd be happy seeing Pedro Neto, Moises Caicedo, Reece James and Romeo Lavia all playing consistently, but cannot do that given past issues.
He explained: "For sure, our situation, we have players, because of their history, that we need to manage. We have four or five players, we need to protect and manage. I would like to play all the games with Reece, Pedro, Moi, even Romeo, but it is not possible, so we try and find a different solution."
Indeed, on Lavia, Maresca added: "It's a muscle problem. We don't know yet when he can be back. We don't know (if it's long- or short-term)."
Estevao at Elland Road
Maresca, before concluding, also addressed his decision to take Estevao off at halftime in the defeat at Leeds. In the aftermath, Maresca admitted concern that the Elland Road atmosphere was rattling the teen.
He expanded on that this morning: "My feeling was not Leeds targeted him, my feeling was they targeted all of our players, not just Estevao. It's something that will be a process for him to become better and better.
"It's too easy to put him on the pitch and play, play, play but we need to manage him a bit."
Chelsea travel to Bournemouth tomorrow sitting in fourth place on the Premier League table.