Enzo Maresca Thread

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

On 28/07/2024 at 14:02, Fulham Broadway said:

Concede and everyone looks at each other, then shrugs.

Its all a load of bollocks without a leader(s) on the pitch

Tosin to replace Thiago Silva and then offloading Chalobah (who again isn’t an inferior player to Tosin at all), Stewart & Winstanley masterclass.

Then appointing someone with 1.5 years managerial experience based on a Championship promotion and time he spent working with Pep as a coach on a 5 year deal 😂

Been saying it for ages now - they are fucking clueless.

Feel sorry for Maresca because he will be thrown to the wolves in the same way Potter and Poch were - albeit Potter was way out of his depth and a daft appointment from the get go.

Edited July 31, 2024 by OneMoSalah

[Fulham Broadway 17,331]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Tosin to replace Thiago Silva and then offloading Chalobah (who again isn’t an inferior player to Tosin at all), Stewart & Winstanley masterclass.

Would have definitely kept Chalobah and Lewis Hall. But its only opinions at the end of the day

 

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Then appointing someone with 1.5 years managerial experience based on a Championship promotion and time he spent working with Pep as a coach on a 5 year deal 😂

Yup seems very reminiscent of Villas boas and we know  how that ended. Just because a clubs in new hands doesnt mean everything that went before can be disregarded - its like that definition of  insanity - keep doing the same things but expect different results

[Fulham Broadway 17,331]

A former Chelsea player believes the way the club is currently being run is a 'disgrace'.

A consortium fronted by Todd Boehly completed a takeover of the club from Roman Abramovich in 2022, and the Blues have since spent in excess of £1bn on transfers.

But results on the pitch have gone backwards, with Chelsea finishing comfortably outside the top four in each of their last two campaigns. They have also been through six different managers - including interim appointments - during this period, with Enzo Maresca the latest man charged with turning the club's fortunes around.

Frank Leboeuf, who played for Chelsea between 1996 and 2001, is deeply concerned with what he is seeing at the club, and does not expect Maresca to improve matters any time soon.

'Some fans think Chelsea can just start from scratch next season, but it won’t really be starting from scratch after spending a billion pounds,' 

'The club can do whatever they want with their money but as a former player, I think it’s kind of a disgrace to see what we are seeing.'

Chelsea have largely focused on recruiting young players with Boehly at the helm, splashing the cash on numerous teenagers as well as exciting prospects in their early 20s such as Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Mykhailo Mudryk.

But Lebouef feels this transfer strategy is a mistake, and is adamant that Chelsea will have no chance of winning the Premier League unless they start to bring in more experienced stars.

He continued: 'The talent is there in the squad but you don’t have any leaders or players you can rely on, that’s the biggest problem Enzo Maresca has.

Daily News

Hes been reading my posts

[Laylabelle 9,536]

He won't be here next season and be back to square one..

[NikkiCFC 8,334]

If Arteta is Pep from Aliexpress, Maresca is Pep from Temu.

Edited August 1, 2024 by NikkiCFC

[Fulham Broadway 17,331]

33 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

He won't be here next season and be back to square one..

A lot of owners dont like strong leaders on or off the pitch. But every successful club has either a strong manager or trusted leaders on the pitch. Abramovich felt managers were disposable, whereas Man Utd became Ferguson Utd for years.

Clownlake seem to think both managers and players are disposable, and that it has no correlation to success or lack of

[Gundalf 806]

Some people here need more fucking fr. 

[Vesper 30,212]

Enzo Maresca interview: ‘I am 100 per cent sure we are on the right path’

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5674021/2024/08/01/Chelsea-enzo-maresca-interview/

Enzo Maresca does not want to perform an initiation song as Chelsea head coach but he is prepared to change his mind if it means getting to emulate Italian compatriot Antonio Conte.

Maresca is already renowned as a coach who does his homework. As he sits down with a small group of journalists in Atlanta to conduct his first in-depth interview since taking over at Stamford Bridge, he does not need reminding that Conte was the last manager to win the Premier League for Chelsea.

Conte led Chelsea to the title in his first season in charge seven years ago. Before the 2016-17 campaign began, the club toured the United States. After being asked to take part in the Chelsea tradition of new arrivals performing for the rest of the group, Conte obliged them by singing a Neapolitan favourite called Malafemmena.

In contrast, Maresca jokes it was part of the terms and conditions inserted in his five-year contract that he does not have to follow suit, but adds: “If someone said that singing would make us win the title, then I am going to sing every night!”

Few will consider Chelsea among the favourites to lift the trophy next May. The men’s team has not won any silverware since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium took over two years ago and they finished 28 points behind champions Manchester City last season.

Maresca knows better than most the size of the task facing him to bridge the gap to his former employers, let alone teams such as Arsenal. He was assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, who have won six of the last seven Premier League titles, when they won the treble in 2022-23 and, before a brief 14-game in charge at Parma, was City’s under-21s head coach.

After succeeding Mauricio Pochettino, who left by mutual consent, there are inevitably going to be teething problems. Before securing their first pre-season win over Club America on Wednesday night, Chelsea struggled to a 2-2 draw with League One side Wrexham and were thrashed 4-1 by Scottish champions Celtic.

Manchester City are their next opponents in Colombus on Saturday. The fixture comes two weeks before they face each other in their opening Premier League game on August 18, when there will be a lot more scrutiny about what takes place.

Maresca is feeling calm and realistic. ”I would like to reach the same level (as Manchester City) as soon as possible,” he said. “Every manager is asking for time, especially when you change the idea completely.

“Sometimes it looks like an excuse but for instance, everyone that watches us is focused on what we do with the ball, we build from behind. But I watched many, many games last season of Chelsea and I almost never saw man-to-man high pressing. They always wait a little bit. Since we started, we have decided to go man-to-man because it is our way, so aggressive. It’s a big change.

“Before the Celtic game, we sat with the staff and said how they had played four friendly games, with their first league game (vs Kilmarnock) coming up this weekend (August 4) while we have played 45 minutes (only Carney Chukwuemeka was not substituted at half-time against Wrexham). We could sit back and wait, not take a risk, or we could go in the way we want to go in the season. I said, ‘No chance! We are going in the way we want to because we need to prepare ourselves for the season’.

“The big difference between us and the teams that dominate, Manchester City and Arsenal, is that one club has had the same manager for eight years (Guardiola) and the other one for five years (Arteta). We have had two or three weeks.

“If we played against Celtic with Leicester, we would have played better because I already had one year and they knew many things. But when you start, it is the price you pay at the beginning. I am 100 per cent sure we are on the right path.”

One of the reasons Chelsea hired Maresca despite his limited experience as a head coach — Leicester in 2023-24 was only his second job and they finished top of the Championship — was the knowledge he has gleaned from working closely with Guardiola. He wants his teams to dominate possession like Manchester City, another factor that appealed to the Chelsea hierarchy.

But Maresca is resistant to the notion that he is a Guardiola clone turning Chelsea into a bunch of copycats. He told the club the same during the interview process.

“What I don’t like is people, or you, or fans, or the club expecting the same football that Manchester City is doing,” he said. “Because when I joined Leicester and I met the chairman and sporting director, they asked me, ‘We want to change the style and we want to play the same way that City play’. And I told them, ‘We don’t have the same players and I am not the same manager’. The same thing when I met Chelsea. I said, ‘The idea is that idea, but probably we need time because the players also need to understand what way we want to play and it’s a bit different’.”

The lazy comparisons are made even easier because Maresca looks so similar to Guardiola that they could be related.

He continued: “This is something that I struggle a little bit with sometimes, when I see something saying, ‘Because he’s bald and with a beard, he wants to play the same’. No, I don’t want. I try to play the way that we want to play. It is probably close because I fell in love with that idea, but that does not mean it is exactly the same way.”

No one should doubt how much admiration Maresca has for Guardiola, though. It began when Maresca was playing in midfield for Sevilla against Guardiola’s great Barcelona side that won the treble in 2009. In the two La Liga games played between them that season, Sevilla lost 7-0 on aggregate.

“I have to say that, if I am where I am now, it’s because of him,” Maresca admits. “I was 28, 29. I faced Barcelona. On the pitch, I realised that it was not the same as playing against another team. I was still playing and I was already watching games, analysing games, watching training sessions on YouTube, because I fell in love immediately. It’s like when you see your wife or your kids. I fell in love.”

Such is the strength of their bond, they speak frequently, including the night before this interview. On accepting the post at Chelsea, Guardiola was one of the first to reach out and back him to do a good job.

”We speak many times,” he says. “When I joined Chelsea, he was very happy because he is sure with timing, we can build something important.“

Another former Manchester City coach, Manuel Pellegrini, is among the other men he lists as having a big influence on his coaching career: “He was the one that said to me, ‘Enzo, you have to try to be a manager’.” Carlo Ancelotti, who won the Premier League and FA Cup with Chelsea in 2009-10, is another. Both taught him about man-management.

So what does he make of the squad he has inherited? Naturally, he had only good things to say about them during the interview process with Chelsea, which consisted of three or four meetings in all.

Another Premier League club was keen on hiring him too. Maresca did not name who but Brighton, Liverpool and West Ham all changed managers over the summer, while Manchester United spoke to other candidates before deciding to stick with Erik ten Hag.

“I expected exactly what they (the players) are showing me,” he says. “Christopher (Nkunku) was injured for almost all last season but I knew from Germany how good he is. He has surprised me but it is not a big one, I expected that. I know Levi (Colwill) is very good and he is showing what I expected. There was some doubt with Noni (Madueke) but in the way I like the winger, he could be a good profile for us. Most of all, it is just important to compete and have at least two options so if it is not you, it can be him and we have the same level.”

He is yet to see Chelsea’s best player from last season, Cole Palmer, who was given extended time off after playing for England at Euro 2024. Palmer scored a remarkable 25 goals in his debut season at the club, not that it came as a shock to Maresca, who worked with him while in charge of Manchester City Under-21s.

The 22-year-old was given a lot of licence to express himself under Pochettino, but could Maresca’s high-press demands force the attacker to adapt in some way? Given he does not report to Cobham until next week, he is already going to have to play catch-up when it comes to understanding the system.

“I’ve spoken with him many times. He is not going to play if he does not work,” Maresca laughs. “I had Cole one year so I know him. I know he likes a little bit of freedom. But if Cole is what he is now, it’s because he learned for 10 to 15 years the way he learned at Manchester City.

“On and off the ball, for sure he is a fantastic player. He scored (over) 20 goals last season. Hopefully, he can score the same but it is not easy for any player to score (over) 20 one year and do the same the next. What we want from Cole is to try and be himself.”

Before our time is up, Maresca is asked how he would celebrate if he does take the Chelsea men’s team to their first trophy since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium took over. “I love cigars,” he replies. “I love Partagas because my dad smokes cigars. Partagas is the one (brand) that I like.”

Just like Maresca’s squad, they do not come cheap. But they will be worth every penny if Maresca succeeds in providing the spark that has been missing at Chelsea for the past two years.

[Vesper 30,212]

Why Chelsea’s goalkeepers will be crucial to Enzo Maresca’s system working

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5671414/2024/08/01/Chelsea-enzo-maresca-goalkeepers-tactics/

“For sure, the way we want to play, the goalkeeper is very, very important. It is one of the main positions.”

Enzo Maresca did not attempt to downplay the greater demands that will be placed on his goalkeepers this season when he spoke after Chelsea’s first pre-season friendly against Wrexham.

The ripple effects have already led to Filip Jorgensen being signed from Villarreal for a fee of €24.5million (£20.7m, $26.6m), creating the real possibility that Djordje Petrovic will be sold only a year after arriving at Stamford Bridge.

Robert Sanchez is set to go into the new Premier League season as Chelsea’s starting goalkeeper. Even he must make a significant adjustment to satisfy a head coach whose tactical approach requires an 11th outfield player when in possession, and a highly aggressive last line of defence when out of it.

Maresca’s system is about control, and control is established at the back. When his team has the ball and one of his full-backs inverts into central midfield, the goalkeeper is instructed to push up where possible to restore a fourth passing option to the defensive line, creating a 4-2-2-3 alignment in possession.

This could be seen regularly at Leicester City last season, with goalkeeper Mads Hermansen venturing far outside his penalty area in possession to aid his team’s attempts to build up play and defeat opponents’ pressing systems.

Here, against Southampton, he splits centre-backs Jannik Vestergaard and Wout Faes while left-back James Justin pushes up high and wide. Right-back Ricardo Pereira is in midfield:

Despite committing five players to the opposition half, Southampton’s pressing unit is outnumbered thanks to Hermansen. On this occasion, he spots an opportunity to kick longer towards Abdul Fatawu, who wins the aerial duel and creates a dangerous situation where Southampton are forced to defend man-to-man:

Those longer passes were the exception rather than the rule for Hermansen under Maresca; while he averaged the second-most attempted passes of any goalkeeper in the Championship last season per 90 minutes (49.7) according to Fbref (behind Carl Rushworth, on loan at Swansea from Brighton & Hove Albion), only 13.5 were hit further than 30 yards. Most of his shorter passes were directed into central areas just outside his box:

Maresca demands that his goalkeeper be comfortable and courageous enough with the ball to play shorter passes through and around opposition pressure. The sequence below is a good example. Starting in a deeper position, Hermansen waits to draw three opponents towards his penalty area before threading an incisive pass forward to Faes, who has space to advance:

Baiting the opposition press is a risky business for a goalkeeper. When it goes wrong the results can be catastrophic, as Hermansen found when he dallied too long against Birmingham City in April and striker Jay Stansfield charged down his attempted clearance, deflecting it into the net:

 

Asked about his goalkeeper’s mistake after the match, Maresca said: “We won many games this year because of Mads. It can happen. What cannot happen is that he starts to play long balls. Otherwise, we are going to play the second keeper.”

The above sequence may prompt shudders from Chelsea supporters who recall similar errors from Sanchez last season — not all of which were punished — attempting to build from the back under Mauricio Pochettino. Those moments do not appear to have shaken his confidence in his ability to do what Maresca requires.

“It’s a different style,” Sanchez told talkSPORT earlier this month. “The goalkeeper here needs to ‘have a pair’ and show a bit of personality. I think I am the right guy for that.”

Sanchez has committed himself to Maresca’s system in his early pre-season appearances. Here, against Wrexham, he slowly advances with the ball into Chelsea’s defensive line and then, when no opposition pressure is forthcoming, rattles a sharp pass into the feet of Romeo Lavia:

But there were also signs in Chelsea’s dispiriting 4-1 defeat against Celtic that the Spaniard’s decision-making in possession is not yet as reliable as Maresca needs it to be.

Receiving a backpass from Tosin Adarabioyo under a strong Celtic press, he elects to move the ball straight to a retreating Benoit Badiashile, who compounds the error with a reckless and wayward first-time pass back towards Tosin. The result is a disastrous turnover and an almost immediate goal conceded:

In any case, Sanchez will need to significantly scale up his involvement in possession under Maresca; he averages 40.8 touches per 90 minutes according to FBref, much lower than Hermansen’s 51.4.

There is also a marked distinction in where these touches occur. Hermansen was extremely adventurous in his positioning under Maresca, taking 32 per cent of his touches in central areas in front of his penalty area:

As well as making himself an 11th outfield player when Leicester had the ball, he was also an aggressive sweeper-keeper behind his team’s high defensive line.

At times these two roles merged: here, against Norwich City, his interception of a high ball over the Leicester defence is also a first-time pass down the left side towards Yunus Akgun, who initiated a sharp passing interchange that quickly transforms defence into attack:

Sanchez, in contrast, took 74 per cent of his total touches for Chelsea in 2023-24 in his penalty area and fewer than 10 per cent in those same more advanced central zones:

He is not naturally wired to be hyper-aggressive rushing out of his penalty area, but interventions like this one against Wrexham will need to become commonplace under Maresca:

 

According to FBref, the average distance from goal of Hermansen’s defensive actions is 18.8 yards, slightly beyond the boundary of his own penalty area. Sanchez’s average distance is 15.8 yards, a marginal but important difference in Maresca’s system.

But what of the other senior goalkeepers at Maresca’s disposal? First, it is easy to see why Petrovic is not considered a good fit. He is more risk-averse with his distribution, favouring safe passes to centre-backs either side of his penalty area as well as kicking longer when pressured more often than Hermansen or Sanchez:

With an average distance of defensive actions of just 12.7 yards he is also even more conservative with his positioning in and out of possession than Sanchez, interacting with the ball outside his penalty area as little as possible:

New signing Jorgensen is an interesting case. He registered the highest pass completion rate (80.7 per cent) of any La Liga goalkeeper not playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona in 2023-24 and his shorter distribution was notably more progressive than that of Petrovic, exhibiting a greater willingness to pass forward into central areas outside his box:

But the Dane hardly profiled as a modern sweeper-keeper at Villarreal. The average distance from goal of his defensive actions is 13.8 yards, only marginally better than Petrovic, while 82 per cent of his touches were confined to his penalty area and the bulk of those were in his own six-yard box:

 

Perhaps that is no more than a reflection of the way Jorgensen was instructed to play at Villarreal, but it does mean he faces an even greater stylistic change than Sanchez if he is to establish himself as the type of goalkeeper Maresca wants at the base of his team.

None of Chelsea’s current goalkeeping options are as seamless a fit for their new head coach’s system as Hermansen was at Leicester in 2023-24. Maresca will be hoping that is no longer the case when competitive football begins later this month.

[KEVINAA 129]

Would you take him as our manager in a few years.

Thierry Henry left France u21.

Do you think or want him to be our next coach after maresca leaves in a few years time orvhas a ruud van nistlerooy coaching role like him.

Edited August 19, 2024 by KEVINAA

[Vesper 30,212]

Maresca on Chelsea squad: 'It is not a mess that it looks like from outside'

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5714238/2024/08/21/Chelsea-squad-enzo-maresca/

 

 

Enzo Maresca insists Chelsea are not in a mess over the size of their squad and denied he has been brutal over the axing of senior players like Raheem Sterling.

Chelsea have come under a lot of negative scrutiny over the amount of players they have on the books.

Several first-team players, including Ben Chilwell and Sterling, have been ordered to train away from the main group as the club try to move them on and cut down the number of senior pros.

Maresca says the situation is not a negative distraction because he has only been working with the players he prefers since the club returned from their pre-season tour of the United States earlier this month.

“It is already the first XI we want, the squad we want,” the Italian said. “I am not working with 42 players, that is something (being talked about) from outside.

“I am working with 21 players. Today’s (training) session was with 20 players, yesterday was 21. The other 15-20 are training apart. I don’t see them. It is not a mess that it looks from outside.

“I am here to take decisions and to think who is the best for us. I am not thinking about how many years (are left) on their contracts, it is not my job. If I don’t like them, they can have 20-year contracts, I don’t care. I am just here to make the right decision for the team, no more than that.

“It is the job of all managers to keep players happy. This is something almost impossible because they train every day to get minutes and only 11 are going to play (from the start).

“I try to be honest with all of them. In this moment the noise is more outside because I am working with 21-22 players since we came back from USA.”

GO DEEPER

Gallagher and Joao Felix moves speak for Chelsea's attraction to mystery boxes

Sterling and Chilwell were among the 26-27 players Maresca included on Chelsea’s pre-season tour to America but were told by the head coach before the club’s opening Premier League game against Manchester City that they would be better off joining another club if they want to get minutes. Defender Trevoh Chalobah was not even taken on the trip.

Pressed on whether his behaviour could be considered brutal, he replied: “I don’t think so. I just try to be honest.

“I spoke with Raheem before the Manchester City game. I said that he is going to struggle to get minutes with us and this is the reason why he was out of the squad. And with Chilly, I said that he is a lovely guy but he is going to struggle because his position with us, he is going to struggle. If you define this as brutal, it is up to you. For me it is not (being) brutal, it is just honest.”

 

[ChrissWTF 10]

My Manager !!!

[Special Juan 28,141]

Love his no mixed up word approach, straight to the point and telling people how it is.

 

[We Hate Scouse 10,327]

23 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Love his no mixed up word approach, straight to the point and telling people how it is.

 

Certainly something we've lacked in a manager for a few years. It's great to see and hopefully the players take note and realise he won't take any shit too. 

[Special Juan 28,141]

6 minutes ago, We Hate Scouse said:

Certainly something we've lacked in a manager for a few years. It's great to see and hopefully the players take note and realise he won't take any shit too. 

Nice to see you back fella.

[milka 3,393]

Enzo Mascara have no word about anything he is obviously yes man whatever clownlake say that's it . At first he was talking about Sterling being his type of profile player, now it turns out he doesn't want him . Chilwell clear of Cucucucurella and Veiga . Chalobah clear of Badiashile the spagetti man and Disaster . This defence is mid table level at best with Sanchez .

[Vesper 30,212]

[Vesper 30,212]

Frank Lampard pinpoints one key issue that could hold Chelsea back under Enzo Maresca

https://metro.co.uk/2024/09/02/frank-lampard-pinpoints-key-issue-may-hold-Chelsea-back-enzo-maresca-21529986/?ito=newsnow-feed

Frank Lampard fears Chelsea’s youthful squad could hold them back under new boss Enzo Maresca after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Crystal Palace on Sunday.

The Blues were at their scintillating best in a 6-0 win over Wolves last weekend but were brought back down to earth in midweek after a 2-1 loss to Servette in the Europa Conference League.

Another inconsistent display followed at Stamford Bridge on Sunday as Maresca’s side surged ahead through Nicolas Jackson but were pinned back and forced to settle for a point after Eberechi Eze’s second-half strike.

With a new manager and plenty of fresh signings still to blood into the team, Lampard urged caution from fans, insisting those factors and the squad’s youthful make-up will lead to inconsistent performances.

‘Inconsistency will be there – young players bring that,’ the former Chelsea midfielder said on Match of the Day 2.

‘If you look at moments in the game where Chelsea are on top, maybe they aren’t clinical enough and then you can always feel the game can swing on them.

‘You do wonder if that bit of experience through the spine of the team isn’t there and you’ll have to wait for that but there’s certainly a lot of talent in there.’

Despite that, however, Lampard remained optimistic in the direction of travel under Maresca and believes the club have turned a corner from the negative atmosphere that was all-encompassing during his ill-fated second stint in the dugout.

‘In terms of where they are at, Maresca mentioned today that they aren’t the same team that won the Champions League and he is right,’ Lampard added.

‘I was there 18 months ago and at that point, it was a really low point from my point of view because it didn’t feel like the club that it had been which was so successful for 20 years.

‘A lot of that was the environment and getting that right. I feel like they are on an upward curve but there will be good days and bad days because of the squad.

‘But there is a lot of talent and if they can keep improving, especially at the top end of the pitch, they can give teams a lot of problems.’

Chelsea will look to get back to winning ways after the international break when they travel down to the south coast to take on Bournemouth.

Trending 

[Vesper 30,212]

Chelsea

https://thedailybriefing.io/i/148844156/Chelsea

• Official, confirmed. Nicolas Jackson signs a new deal at Chelsea valid until June 2033. “It feels great the club has confidence in me. I am working very hard. I am very happy to extend my contract and stay here for many years.”

• Enzo Maresca: “I really, really like Carney Chukwuemeka... but we have so many attacking midfielders. Unfortunately, we didn't find solutions in the summer. Now we can use him.”

• Maresca opens the doors to a Ben Chilwell return: “We will sit with him and find a solution. He is probably going to be back with us, we will see. At the moment, he is not training with us. The reason why he was training apart, is because the idea was for him to leave.”

• Enzo Maresca: “Reece James is not ready and he needs more time. Malo Gusto is also out. Romeo Lavia is very close, hopefully he is back for the next game.”

• Enzo Maresca: "Jadon Sancho, I am seeing him the way I expected to. It's a matter of finding the right moment to give him the chance."

• Enzo Maresca: “I don't consider Jadon Sancho a risk off the pitch. Whatever's happened with Erik ten Hag… I have no idea. I can only judge the player on the weeks he's been with us. He's been perfect.”

• Enzo Maresca: “The reason why Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia, Wes Fofana are out of the Conference League squad is because we try to protect them. Cole is fit, he’s fine. We are happy with how he is.”

• Enzo Maresca: “I was in love with the squad and now I’m in love with the club. It’s one of the best clubs in the world and I’m happy with what we are doing.”

• David Datro Fofana leaves Chelsea to join Göztepe SK on loan until June 2025. Deal includes re-call clause for January.

• Chelsea star’s controversial stance should be respected says Fabrizio Romano.

• Si Phillips discusses the “hard facts” that William Gallas has spouted about the Chelsea owners.

Edited September 14, 2024 by Vesper

[Vesper 30,212]

Enzo Maresca’s big call at Chelsea: Nkunku or Jackson up front?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5773427/2024/09/18/Chelsea-jackson-nkunku-maresca/

Jabbing a finger into his own chest as he ran towards the travelling Chelsea supporters at the Vitality Stadium, Christopher Nkunku’s energy in celebrating his winning goal over Bournemouth was as much angry defiance as pure jubilation.

“The reason I used Christo in that moment was I thought we were creating chances but we lacked quality inside the box,” Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca said after the match, explaining his decision to introduce Nkunku from the bench in place of Nicolas Jackson in the 79th minute. “So the idea to use him as a No 9 was because, any ball inside the box, we know he’s a quality player and could decide the game.”

Nkunku revealed that Maresca had told him to “enjoy” his 11 minutes on the pitch. He certainly relished receiving Jadon Sancho’s clever pass on the swivel, bouncing between two Bournemouth defenders and poking the ball just inside Mark Travers’ far post, but the frustration that poured out of him immediately after the goal was equally understandable.

Having featured more than anyone else in Maresca’s squad during pre-season, Nkunku appeared primed to announce himself in the Premier League in the manner that was denied him by a succession of injuries in 2023-24. Instead, he has found himself the most unexpected victim of an attacking rotation at Chelsea that became markedly more crowded in August with the arrivals of Pedro Neto, Joao Felix and Sancho.

As he had been against Crystal Palace a week earlier, Nkunku was Maresca’s third attacker off the bench against Bournemouth. A growing number of Chelsea fans are wondering if he should instead be the team’s first-choice striker — particularly since the words of his head coach could also be viewed as an implicit criticism of Jackson, who drew one reasonable save from Travers but rarely looked a threat at the Vitality Stadium.

The lobby for deploying Nkunku as a No 9 is as much about Jackson, who continues to be a strangely polarising figure in the grand Chelsea picture.

Scoring 14 non-penalty goals in his debut Premier League campaign helped secure a new contract that extends his stay at Stamford Bridge until June 2033 — the joint-longest commitment in the squad along with the improved deal given to Cole Palmer earlier this season — and yet the Senegal international remains a popular target of mockery for rival fans as well as derision from vocal sections of the Chelsea support.

Jackson has not yet proven himself capable of being a finisher on par with Nkunku’s highest levels of efficiency at RB Leipzig (the Frenchman scored 32 non-penalty goals, 5.4 more than expected, in his two final Bundesliga campaigns). Jackson significantly underperformed relative to his non-penalty xG (npxG) in the Premier League in 2023-24, scoring around 4.6 goals fewer than expected, according to Opta.

This stands out relative to the top 10 scorers of non-penalty goals in the Premier League last season, though it is interesting to note that Erling Haaland also underperformed his npxG:

Jackson’s return of two non-penalty goals in the first four Premier League matches of 2024-25 also constitutes an underperformance relative to his npxG of 2.5. But to focus solely on finishing efficiency (which can fluctuate wildly from season to season) is to relegate the single most reliable indicator of a player that has the capability to be a prolific goalscorer: the ability to generate expected goals (xG) in the first place.

Haaland was the only player in the Premier League to generate more non-penalty expected goals than Jackson in 2023-24. Even adjusting for minutes played, the Senegal international’s 0.6 npxG per 90 minutes ranked behind only the Manchester City phenomenon and Newcastle star Alexander Isak, whom Chelsea enquired about signing in the summer:

Jackson may not be converting his scoring chances with elite efficiency just yet, but he is getting himself into scoring positions with elite regularity. It is little wonder why Chelsea are so bullish on a 23-year-old who has only played as a No 9 for 18 months, particularly since composure and finishing technique are easier to learn and hone on the training pitch than the subtle nuances of movement, timing and instincts.

None of which is to discount the possibility that Nkunku might be the better No 9 option for Chelsea right now. There is an increasingly substantial body of evidence over the past four years to indicate that he is an above-average finisher, and it is hard to imagine Jackson being able to manufacture the narrow shooting window in a crowded Bournemouth penalty area as deftly as he did.

Jackson’s other skills are the bulwark of his case to remain a Chelsea starter: his selfless pressing, his intelligent movement, his improving hold-up play and his often sublime link-up with attacking teammates. He more often than not makes those around him better but similar can be said of Nkunku, who can do most of the same things to at least an equivalent level.

The best argument against regularly starting Nkunku as a No 9 is that he has even less experience leading an attack as a lone striker than Jackson; his two best scoring seasons at RB Leipzig were achieved orbiting Andre Silva, a more traditional focal point frontman.

Many of Chelsea’s best pre-season moments under Mauricio Pochettino in the summer of 2023 came from Nkunku and Jackson combining in the final third. Maresca would do well to get them both into the same team, but at whose expense? Nkunku is not a winger, and he is unlikely to be deployed as the left-sided No 8 as long as Palmer also operates centrally — not least because Moises Caicedo needs someone standing within 30 yards of him in midfield.

Maresca’s primary duty is to pick a balanced, coherent team, regardless of who is in it. Chelsea’s summer transfer activity has left him with far more attacking weapons than Pochettino had, but also many more difficult decisions.

“At the end of the game I just said to the players — Christo, Cole, Jadon, Joao, Noni (Madueke), Misha (Mykhailo Mudryk), Pedro — they are not all going to play all the games,” Maresca said after the Bournemouth win. “All they need to do is exactly what they did tonight.”

A run of games as a No 9 at Jackson’s expense could be in Nkunku’s future at Chelsea. Or there could simply be more cameo appearances, and enjoyment tinged with anger.