Enzo Maresca Thread

[Bluepower777 17]

said from the beginning even while Potter and Potch were here, they bringing in the wrong kind of  players in every area, yes the coach is also way too inexperienced but no coach or manager is going to succeed with this lot barring say 3 or 4 players of reasonable value, even when we were doing well you could sense sooner or later it’s going to implode, one of the reasons I stopped posting on here. Even now I’m reading about players we are linked too that’s not going to help our cause. So yes we need a more experienced coach or manager but his not gonna achieve much. Let’s just hope we don’t slip too far down as we could even face a relegation battle. It’s a big problem because now the transfer season is closed and we simply don’t have the players. Not to mention the availability of any other managers or coaches.

[Laylabelle 9,420]

19 hours ago, Fernando said:

Yup that is the right way. 

I think the winter window they didn't address much the team because it can be hard. Just wing it with what we have and in the summer we can get some improvement especially with some manager stability. 

Because I always said we fire this guy and new guy wants to try his guy. We waste so much time like that. With Maresca now one year we can improve this summer. 

Yep...someone else comes in with their vision waste half of the transfer window with recruitment.. then come year after it all goes around again and again. 

Kept hearing about Slot and how he's done so well but they had a ready made team! All he had to do was tweak it..not rebuild and rebuild

[YorkshireBlue 3,164]

5 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

Yep...someone else comes in with their vision waste half of the transfer window with recruitment.. then come year after it all goes around again and again. 

Kept hearing about Slot and how he's done so well but they had a ready made team! All he had to do was tweak it..not rebuild and rebuild

I don’t even think he’s tweaked it, saw what klopp was doing and kept it the same 

[Vytis33 1,175]

He didn’t start saying Champions League placement was meant for next year until recently.   When we were comfortably in second place didn’t say a word about it 

[Mhsc 957]

1 minute ago, Vytis33 said:

He didn’t start saying Champions League placement was meant for next year until recently.   When we were comfortably in second place didn’t say a word about it 

He has always said there was no specific target for this year about getting it

And that we were performing way ahead of expectations sooner than expected and that people shouldn't get carried away

[Laylabelle 9,420]

1 hour ago, YorkshireBlue said:

I don’t even think he’s tweaked it, saw what klopp was doing and kept it the same 

Defence wise theyve looked mote solid this season.

Everything else the same attack esp...or better.

 

[Vesper 29,267]

redid my 'dropped points' (lower now) to reflect how good some teams have turned out to be and how poor we have become

we have dropped 12 points in games we should have won or drew

 

4 SHAMBOLIC draws

 

 dropped 2

 dropped 2

 dropped 2

 dropped 2

 

2 losses, one we should have drawn, one we should have won

 

 dropped 1 (95th minute choke, I had this as a dropped 3, but Fulham turned out to be far better this season than I had them rated)

 

 dropped 3 (Ipswich are HORRID, no excuse to not beat them)

 

[Blue Armour 4,342]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

redid my 'dropped points' (lower now) to reflect how good some teams have turned out to be and how poor we have become

we have dropped 12 points in games we should have won or drew

 

4 SHAMBOLIC draws

 

 dropped 2

 dropped 2

 dropped 2

 dropped 2

 

2 losses, one we should have drawn, one we should have won

 

 dropped 1 (95th minute choke, I had this as a dropped 3, but Fulham turned out to be far better this season than I had them rated)

 

 dropped 3 (Ipswich are HORRID, no excuse to not beat them)

 

Speaking of teams we should have beat..

Prior to facing Chelsea, Brighton conceded 7 goals to Forest.

In the 2 fixtures against Brighton, FA cup and PL, Chelsea registered only 1 shot on target.

Clearlake masterclass 👏

[Reddish-Blue 2,410]

4 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Speaking of teams we should have beat..

Prior to facing Chelsea, Brighton conceded 7 goals to Forest.

In the 2 fixtures against Brighton, FA cup and PL, Chelsea registered only 1 shot on target.

Clearlake masterclass 👏

Also Maresca masterclass 😆  'make sure to have 65 to 70% possession for no reason, keep recycling the ball like your in control of the game, even though you're down 2-0 at HT' 

[whats happening 1,555]

sacking maresca would be a mistake. i would give him time until the end of the next season. see if he's improving in the next 15 months. if not, then look for another solution.

[Mhsc 957]

1 hour ago, whats happening said:

sacking maresca would be a mistake. i would give him time until the end of the next season. see if he's improving in the next 15 months. if not, then look for another solution.

In general I agree - but I think really it should be a decision for a new set of sporting directors. In general the flow of events that are needed in my mind would be something roughly like:

1. the directors immediately get fired, and go into a retirement as literally no one would hire them after this shambles - fucking disgraceful what they've done with huge amounts of their employers money, found some good gems but with a hit rate of like 20%. 

2. the owners, accepting finally that they have really cocked this up and have no idea how to build a squad, take a bit of a step back, finding more established directors who have accomplished a lot more than recruitment at Brighton, and agree on a new shared vision for them to implement - which can still build on the current vision, with some practical reality mixed in: even if the team will be overall youthful, bring more experience and leadership into the squad etc

3. the new directors decide whether we are keeping Maresca or for how long he gets a chance. In my opinion, he should probably get until Jan - after a summer of making a few key signings, let him show what he can do with a squad without fraud goalkeepers and CBs etc (and finally sign a striker to compete with NJ)

[bigbluewillie 1,878]

We really need to get a demo arranged, in spite of my disability I will be there.

We need to let the ownership know what the fanbase is about, i’m fed up with their fuck up.

[Vesper 29,267]

Are Chelsea getting worse the more they play Marescaball? An analysis

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6134095/2025/02/14/Chelsea-enzo-maresca-analysis-style/

It is reasonable to conclude from his public pronouncements this season that Enzo Maresca is not a basketball fan.

Chelsea’s head coach is famously more of a chess man and this personal proclivity informs his view of how his football team should play. For much of the first five months of this season, Maresca publicly implored his young team, from his technical area and his press conference microphone, to curb their impulse to turn Premier League games into wars of transition — even as playing fast and furious yielded points at a Champions League qualification rate.

“There are games, especially (this one), where if you do a basketball game, they (would) destroy us because Newcastle are strong,” he said after a 2-1 win over Eddie Howe’s team at Stamford Bridge in October. “The problem is if you attack quick, you are going to concede a quick attack and it’s not our idea, it’s not our football.”

Maresca delivered a similar message after Fulham came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in December, sparking their worrying winter slump. “Fulham are a team that if you want to attack quick, then they will attack quick and it becomes a basketball game,” he said. “That’s not for us. We need to control it better.”

This insistence on control over chaos often manifests in Maresca ostentatiously applauding a Chelsea player who eschews a transition opportunity to consolidate possession, even as groans of frustration ripple around Stamford Bridge — and there are signs in recent weeks that his message is sinking in.

Having initially accelerated on their Mauricio Pochettino-era trajectory towards becoming one of the most frequent counter-attacking teams in the Premier League early on in Maresca’s tenure, Chelsea have steadily generated less and less xG from fast breaks ever since.

The problem for Maresca is that Chelsea slowing down in possession — partly at the urging of their head coach and partly in response to opponents increasingly defending in low blocks against them — has coincided with a run of two wins in eight Premier League games that have seen their attack struggle and left their hopes of securing a top-four finish looking precarious.

Among increasingly anxious and angry supporters, the question is growing louder: does playing Marescaball actually make Chelsea worse?

Using the 2-1 win over Brentford at Stamford Bridge on December 15 (the result that immediately preceded Chelsea’s underwhelming eight-game Premier League sequence) as the point of demarcation, we can identify other potential markers of a change in the style of play — while bearing in mind that eight games is too small a sample size to make concrete conclusions.

For starters, Chelsea’s average share of possession has risen from 56.7 per cent in the 16 Premier League matches culminating in the Brentford win to 60.8 per cent in the eight league games since. They are also averaging 40 more passes attempted per game, but the average number of passes being played into the opposition box has remained remarkably consistent (26.1 up to the Brentford win, 25.8 since).

Chelsea's last eight league games

This may well be partly a consequence of Chelsea’s opponents increasingly defending deep and allowing them to have more of the ball but, just as with the drop in fast break attacks, it chimes with Maresca’s stated desire to see a slower, more patient approach in possession.

Chelsea’s average non-penalty xG has dropped slightly over the same stretch, from 2.0 per game down to 1.8. More significant, however, is their performance in front of goal, scoring around five goals fewer than the quality of their chances suggest they should have since that Brentford game. They over-performed by over two goals in that regard in the opening months of the season.

Put simply, Maresca’s team have gone from being more clinical than expected in the final third over their first 16 Premier League games to being wasteful relative to the quality of the chances they are creating in the last eight league matches — a conclusion that many Chelsea supporters have reached simply by watching them in recent weeks.

Enzo Maresca’s side have won two of their last eight Premier League games (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

At the other end of the pitch, it’s a similar story. Chelsea’s expected goals against (xGA) has actually improved slightly from 1.5 over their first 16 Premier League games to 1.4 in the last eight league matches, but their opposition are being more clinical. They conceded 19 goals from an xG of 23.6 before the Brentford fixture, and have conceded 13 from 12.9 xG since — about right, but another big swing from their previous form nonetheless.

These two trends in combination have significantly narrowed Chelsea’s margin for error but they are also making more of them; having made what Opta defines as errors leading to goals in just three of their first 16 Premier League matches, Maresca’s team have made one such mistake in five of their last eight league games.

Fluctuations in the quality of finishing and frequency of costly errors are to be expected over the course of a 10-month season, and it is possible that Chelsea are simply going through a stretch in which the stars are aligning against them.

The good news is that the difference between their expected goals and expected goals against remains as healthy as it has been since the peak of Thomas Tuchel’s tenure — during which they were an even more patient possession team.

Nicolas Jackson being sidelined until April with a hamstring injury makes it less likely that Maresca will lean back into the fast breaks that bore fruit for Chelsea earlier this season.

“When you don’t have a proper nine (a striker), you probably need to use a different kind of nine but you probably have to change the way you want to play,” Chelsea’s head coach said in his press conference on Thursday. “You cannot be direct; you probably need more linking because you don’t have a threat in behind. We will find a solution.”

In the meantime, the greatest scope for Maresca to revive Chelsea’s faltering form may lie at the other end of the pitch. Their average expected goals against this season (1.45 per game) ranks 11th in the Premier League, nearly identical to Pep Guardiola’s struggling Manchester City.

While significantly better than Pochettino’s historically bad defensive record in 2023-24, Chelsea still have a long way to go to be considered a good defensive team — a reality underlined by their paltry record of four clean sheets in 24 Premier League games this season.

If nothing else, there is a chance that Chelsea being less of a basketball team could help with that.

Additional reporting: Thom Harris

[Vesper 29,267]

Enzo Maresca is in a dangerous moment

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6137871/2025/02/15/enzo-maresca-Chelsea-potter/

It is hard to recover from a three-goal league defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion as Chelsea head coach… just ask Graham Potter.

With Enzo Maresca looking increasingly forlorn on Friday evening as his Chelsea side came second to Brighton in every department, it brought back memories of Potter’s own humiliation in October 2022.

Back then, Chelsea lost 4-1 rather than 3-0, but most of the same ingredients were there, with Chelsea outfought, outthought and outplayed.

There were even two members of Chelsea’s first XI on the receiving end again in centre-back Trevoh Chalobah and former Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella. Moises Caicedo experienced a contrast. On this occasion, the midfielder was wearing a Chelsea shirt rather than a Brighton one and getting abuse from the home crowd rather than cheers as he was when on the winning team against Potter’s Chelsea three years ago.

At least Potter’s Chelsea managed a shot on target that day, seven in fact. Maresca’s suffered the ignominy of not registering a single goal-bound effort, which has not happened to them in a Premier League game since September 2021 against Manchester City.

The jeers and taunts from the Brighton fans were perhaps even louder than in 2022 given their side had also knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup on the same pitch just six days earlier. “Can we play you every week?” they sang with great mirth.

GO DEEPER

The Briefing: Brighton 3 Chelsea 0 - more problems for Maresca, Madueke injury and hosts' magic moments

What has Potter’s painful experience got anything to do with the here and now?

Well, Potter proved unable to turn the negative momentum around after his humbling at the home of his former club. Chelsea lost 10 of their next 21 matches, winning only six, and he was dismissed. Like Maresca, Potter was also given a five-year contract at Stamford Bridge, but that counted for nothing in the face of such mounting adversity. He ended up staying for less than seven months.

Maresca has been in situ for one month longer and it is far too early to say his job is under threat. However, the Italian is showing a similar inability to get better results after setbacks. Chelsea have not won away in the league since December 8 and have picked up just nine points from as many matches overall.

Maresca told BBC Sport after the match that “probably since I arrived, that is the worst performance”. He also admitted to Sky Sports, “I feel pressure always.”

Perhaps the most alarming revelation was provided by full-back Malo Gusto to Premier League Productions when he said, “They had more desire to win than us.” This does not reflect well on the players selected, nor the man who picked them.

The strong team spirit seen in the early months has disappeared. Players are gesturing angrily at each other rather than being supportive.

Instead of leading by example, Chelsea’s best player, Cole Palmer, is letting his frustration show regularly. It took assistant coach Willy Caballero to convince the players, including Palmer, to acknowledge the small section of away fans who had remained until the end. Yet like their display in attack over the previous 90-plus minutes, it was half-hearted.

Pressed on whether Palmer should be setting a better precedent, Maresca replied after the match, “We need all of them, in this moment, to be more positive because this is a moment where we need to stick together and try to finish in the best way.”

 

Palmer against Brighton on Friday (Chelsea Football Club/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

It may not be what every follower wants to hear, but Chelsea have been happy with the job Maresca has done so far. Chelsea have stayed in the top four for the majority of the campaign and he was told on taking the post that he was not expected to qualify for the Champions League until next season.

There is also sympathy for the impact injuries have had on the team. In the past two months, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu have all been sidelined. Noni Madueke has joined them with the hamstring strain he picked up in the first half against Brighton on Friday night. Mykhailo Mudryk is unavailable due to being provisionally suspended in December for testing positive for a banned substance.

But many Chelsea fans have little sympathy for all this. They are clearly growing increasingly restless, just as they did when Potter began to struggle. The away end at Brighton emptied significantly after Chelsea went 3-0 down with still over half an hour to play (including added time), which is never a good sign.

Beforehand, loud chants for former owner Roman Abramovich were heard as well as “We want our Chelsea back”. A strong indication of how quickly the mood has soured is that a few months ago fans were singing “We’ve got our Chelsea back” during a 5-1 victory at Southampton.

Maresca is not the only source of their anger. The Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium, plus co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, are not going to win many popularity contests at the moment.

But Maresca, the third permanent coach hired by the current regime, has to come up with solutions to Chelsea’s poor form, and fast, to improve his own standing in the polls.

[Blue Armour 4,342]

7 hours ago, Vesper said:

Enzo Maresca is in a dangerous moment

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6137871/2025/02/15/enzo-maresca-Chelsea-potter/

It is hard to recover from a three-goal league defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion as Chelsea head coach… just ask Graham Potter.

With Enzo Maresca looking increasingly forlorn on Friday evening as his Chelsea side came second to Brighton in every department, it brought back memories of Potter’s own humiliation in October 2022.

Back then, Chelsea lost 4-1 rather than 3-0, but most of the same ingredients were there, with Chelsea outfought, outthought and outplayed.

There were even two members of Chelsea’s first XI on the receiving end again in centre-back Trevoh Chalobah and former Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella. Moises Caicedo experienced a contrast. On this occasion, the midfielder was wearing a Chelsea shirt rather than a Brighton one and getting abuse from the home crowd rather than cheers as he was when on the winning team against Potter’s Chelsea three years ago.

At least Potter’s Chelsea managed a shot on target that day, seven in fact. Maresca’s suffered the ignominy of not registering a single goal-bound effort, which has not happened to them in a Premier League game since September 2021 against Manchester City.

The jeers and taunts from the Brighton fans were perhaps even louder than in 2022 given their side had also knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup on the same pitch just six days earlier. “Can we play you every week?” they sang with great mirth.

GO DEEPER

The Briefing: Brighton 3 Chelsea 0 - more problems for Maresca, Madueke injury and hosts' magic moments

What has Potter’s painful experience got anything to do with the here and now?

Well, Potter proved unable to turn the negative momentum around after his humbling at the home of his former club. Chelsea lost 10 of their next 21 matches, winning only six, and he was dismissed. Like Maresca, Potter was also given a five-year contract at Stamford Bridge, but that counted for nothing in the face of such mounting adversity. He ended up staying for less than seven months.

Maresca has been in situ for one month longer and it is far too early to say his job is under threat. However, the Italian is showing a similar inability to get better results after setbacks. Chelsea have not won away in the league since December 8 and have picked up just nine points from as many matches overall.

Maresca told BBC Sport after the match that “probably since I arrived, that is the worst performance”. He also admitted to Sky Sports, “I feel pressure always.”

Perhaps the most alarming revelation was provided by full-back Malo Gusto to Premier League Productions when he said, “They had more desire to win than us.” This does not reflect well on the players selected, nor the man who picked them.

The strong team spirit seen in the early months has disappeared. Players are gesturing angrily at each other rather than being supportive.

Instead of leading by example, Chelsea’s best player, Cole Palmer, is letting his frustration show regularly. It took assistant coach Willy Caballero to convince the players, including Palmer, to acknowledge the small section of away fans who had remained until the end. Yet like their display in attack over the previous 90-plus minutes, it was half-hearted.

Pressed on whether Palmer should be setting a better precedent, Maresca replied after the match, “We need all of them, in this moment, to be more positive because this is a moment where we need to stick together and try to finish in the best way.”

 

Palmer against Brighton on Friday (Chelsea Football Club/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

It may not be what every follower wants to hear, but Chelsea have been happy with the job Maresca has done so far. Chelsea have stayed in the top four for the majority of the campaign and he was told on taking the post that he was not expected to qualify for the Champions League until next season.

There is also sympathy for the impact injuries have had on the team. In the past two months, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu have all been sidelined. Noni Madueke has joined them with the hamstring strain he picked up in the first half against Brighton on Friday night. Mykhailo Mudryk is unavailable due to being provisionally suspended in December for testing positive for a banned substance.

But many Chelsea fans have little sympathy for all this. They are clearly growing increasingly restless, just as they did when Potter began to struggle. The away end at Brighton emptied significantly after Chelsea went 3-0 down with still over half an hour to play (including added time), which is never a good sign.

Beforehand, loud chants for former owner Roman Abramovich were heard as well as “We want our Chelsea back”. A strong indication of how quickly the mood has soured is that a few months ago fans were singing “We’ve got our Chelsea back” during a 5-1 victory at Southampton.

Maresca is not the only source of their anger. The Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium, plus co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, are not going to win many popularity contests at the moment.

But Maresca, the third permanent coach hired by the current regime, has to come up with solutions to Chelsea’s poor form, and fast, to improve his own standing in the polls.

The problem here is that with all the injuries, the departures and lack of reinforcements, we can't really say how much of the failings are down to Maresca alone. The fact that he took the team to top 2 in the table, for a period, also skews things.

In the case of Tuchel and Potter, you could easily see how Potter was dragging down an established first team to lower depths. 

[Vesper 29,267]

Do Maresca’s Chelsea need to learn to embrace the chaos?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6143439/2025/02/18/athletic-fc-podcast-Chelsea-maresca-tactics/?source=dailyemail

Chelsea’s season appears to be unravelling before our very eyes.

The Blues could have topped the Premier League just two months ago, but now sit sixth and have a real fight on their hands to secure Champions League qualification.

Enzo Maresca’s side have won just two of their last nine league games and failed to register a single shot on target in their 3-0 loss against Brighton — the first time that unwanted statistic has happened to them in a Premier League game since September 2021.

On the latest episode of The Athletic FC Podcast, Ayo Akinwolere was joined by Chelsea reporter Liam Twomey and senior football writer Oli Kay to discuss why ‘Maresca-ball’ is proving so divisive with the fans.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in “The Athletic FC Podcast” feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

 

Ayo: Liam, how well have Chelsea adapted to what Maresca wants? If you look at some of the stats from Friday (the 3-0 defeat to Brighton), Chelsea had 69.5 per cent possession but lost the xG count, had fewer shots and had no shots on target.

Now, you worked on a piece about Maresca’s controlled style of play ahead of Friday night’s game. Is there an argument to say that this team performs better under chaos than actually when they try and control a match?

Liam: It’s a nuanced one because, in attack, there’s certainly reason to think that some of Chelsea’s attackers do their best work in transition. Cole Palmer finds passes in those chaotic moments when opponents aren’t set better than just about anyone else. Nicolas Jackson, when there’s space to run in behind, is really hard to deal with. You’ve got Noni Madueke, who loves to run at back-pedalling defenders. And Pedro Neto showed at Wolves, probably more than he has done at Chelsea so far, that he can be a super dangerous transition player.

You think about the goal they scored against Newcastle at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season. The sublime pass that Palmer played to Neto and then to Jackson. I think that was seven seconds from one end of the pitch to the other. That is not Enzo Maresca’s vision for Chelsea and how they should play. In fact, after that game was his first mention of, “We don’t want to get into a basketball game”. But there is definitely an argument that playing that way weaponises Chelsea’s attackers to the fullest extent.

But we also have to acknowledge that Chelsea were historically bad defensively under Mauricio Pochettino. The constant chaos and the kind of unstructured nature of the team were a big part of that. They made so many mistakes. They were so disorganised when they were trying to defend against teams that were counterattacking them. The defence has improved this year under Maresca, but it’s not improved enough. In terms of their average expected goals against (xGA) this season, they basically expect to give up 1.4 goals a game, which is about mid-table in the Premier League. It’s actually very close to Manchester City, which would normally be a badge of honour but not this season.

So they’re not historically bad defensively by Chelsea’s modern standards, but they’re still not good enough at that end to be anything other than clinical in attack. So what we’ve seen in the last couple of months is their ruthlessness has deserted them, but their defence hasn’t improved. Therefore your margin for error shrinks to almost nothing, so you’re getting quite a few draws and losses that just look really bad and undermine the momentum that Maresca had seemed to build up.

Ayo: Oli, that comparison to City is interesting, with Maresca being a disciple of Guardiola, but also Guardiola being a coach who loves to control matches. But then you look at the personnel and experience — from Manchester City to Chelsea, it’s vastly different.

You’ve got a bunch of young kids who are still trying to figure out how they’re trying to play and find their strengths in the game. Then you’ve got a City team, maybe not this season, who historically have got some of the smartest, brightest and most experienced players. Can we expect the same from Chelsea; control at this stage in their progression?

Oli: It’s difficult. One area where I sympathise with Maresca is if you really are trying to introduce a totally new way of playing, I don’t think the schedule is conducive to that, where you’re playing every midweek. It’s been Thursday nights in the Conference League and very little recovery time before Premier League games. It’s not very easy to introduce this whole new style. But I agree with Liam, Chelsea’s best this season has been when they’ve been playing quick counter-attacking, transition-based football. That is what they’ve been good at. It’s what Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson have been good at. That’s where they’ve looked very good in certain matches.

 

(Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images)

It’s often been when the opposition has been coming onto them and they’ve been one or two goals ahead and then they’ve been able to run riot, just like they did at Southampton and Wolves. That’s what they’ve been good at, but they seem to be going in a completely different direction. One thing that came to mind when Liam was talking earlier about Maresca and how he was saying, ‘That isn’t particularly the way I want to play’. He’s obviously a young coach wanting to play in a much slower, more controlled way.

It took me back to over 10 years ago with Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool. He arrived there as this sort of disciple of slow, patient, possession-based football and was very evangelical about it and about the way he played at Swansea. He didn’t want chaos, he didn’t want quick football – he wanted to pass teams to death.

Then he suddenly realised, ‘I’ve got (Luis) Suárez, I’ve got a very young (Raheem) Sterling, I’ve got (Philippe) Coutinho and (Daniel) Sturridge’. He flipped and he moved away from his beliefs in some ways and embraced the strengths of the squad. To me, the strengths of this young squad are quite similar; where you’ve got players who are so good on that side of the game. But Maresca seems to be diluting those strengths. Maybe it’s a step back to take three steps forward. And maybe we’ll all be looking at this in a year’s time and saying, ‘Wow, he was right to dismantle it and rebuild it along those lines.’

But at the moment, it does look like they are neutralising their strengths a bit and concentrating on things that a young, thrown-together squad aren’t terribly good at.

You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic FC Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.

[Vesper 29,267]

Chelsea view Enzo Maresca’s style as a route to success – and they’re building the club around it

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6143724/2025/02/19/Chelsea-enzo-maresca-style/

A particular S-word was notably prominent in the stated rationale of Chelsea’s co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart when Enzo Maresca was announced as the club’s new head coach on a five-year contract last summer.

“We are delighted to welcome Enzo to Chelsea,” they said in quotes published on the club’s official digital platforms. “He has proven himself to be an excellent coach capable of delivering impressive results with an exciting and identifiable style.”

Style. Maresca’s achievement in guiding Leicester City to promotion from the Championship as champions impressed Chelsea’s senior leadership, but what helped set him apart from the other candidates to succeed Mauricio Pochettino was the manner in which his team did it: playing a style of football that offers control, balancing chance creation with defensive solidity.

A style of football heavily influenced by Maresca’s mentor Pep Guardiola, the most consequential coach of the modern era. A style of football that Chelsea believe suits the players they have signed and the ones they intend to sign in the future. A style of football they believe offers the best chance of transforming this vast recruitment project into a consistent winner on the pitch at the highest level.

Eight months in, Chelsea under Maresca are a long way from that and trending alarmingly in the wrong direction. Two wins in nine Premier League games have dropped Maresca’s young team, depleted by injuries to several key players, from second to sixth and many of the performances have indicated that their style of play is malfunctioning.

Without a recognisable No 9 in their last two matches against Brighton, other words beginning with S came to mind watching Chelsea’s attempts to play Marescaball: sluggish, stale, sterile, spiritless, self-defeating. Many of the supporters who twice made the miserable trip to the Amex Stadium would probably venture a few more, not suitable for print.

 

Chelsea have been in difficult form recently (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

If there is a continuation away at Aston Villa on Saturday it is highly conceivable that Chelsea’s next outing at Stamford Bridge — against Southampton next Tuesday — will feature Maresca facing noises of disquiet from the stands, similar to those aimed at Maurizio Sarri. Sarri was the last Italian who attempted to implement a grand, progressive idea of football at a club that has spent most of this century defining itself in opposition to philosopher coaches like Guardiola and Arsene Wenger.

Sarri’s appointment was the clearest manifestation of previous owner Roman Abramovich’s own Guardiola fascination, but ultimately for the Russian the glorious end always superseded the stylistic means. All the signs are that Clearlake Capital’s commitment to the school of football represented by Maresca is much deeper and all-encompassing.

There were three significant BlueCo coaching hires last summer. Maresca was by far the most high-profile appointment, but former Benfica academy coach Filipe Coelho was also recruited from Estoril Under-23s to establish the principles of possession-focused, positional play in Chelsea’s development squad. Sister club Strasbourg replaced Patrick Vieira with Liam Rosenior, a bright coach highly regarded by Winstanley and Stewart who was tasked with developing young talent within a dynamic, progressive style of football.

Clearlake want all aspects of the BlueCo operation to have a coherent on-pitch identity. This is the one they have chosen and it extends to the younger age groups of Chelsea’s academy under the leadership of Glenn van der Kraan, appointed academy technical director in October after four years spent as head of youth coaching at Manchester City.

Within that context, hiring Maresca is a far bigger and more important bet by this Chelsea ownership than the appointment of Graham Potter, their ill-fated first attempt to find an emerging project coach to lead the post-Abramovich era in September 2022.

One of the leadership’s regrets about turning to Pochettino in the summer of 2023 is that it was a half-measure that delayed the pivot to this long-term direction. Their full-throated conviction on Maresca was underlined by the tabling of a five-year contract with the option to extend by a further year — offered in part due to the consideration that the Italian might be on City’s wish list to succeed Guardiola if he had chosen not to extend his stay until 2027.

Commitments of this scale and substance are not typically undone by a bad run of form.

 

Behdad Eghbali and Chelsea’s other co-owners are committed to the style in many ways (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Chelsea want Maresca to be their long-term leader and he is less than halfway through what is regarded at Stamford Bridge as effectively a double season, with two Premier League campaigns book-ending the inaugural expanded Club World Cup in the United States. The next Pochettino-style review led by Winstanley and Stewart — who retain the full trust of ownership, despite the criticism frequently directed at them from supporters — has always been projected to take place in the summer of 2026, and there is no appetite to bring that forward.

But the eternal truth of football is that results and performances shift more than fan sentiment. Maresca’s public insistence that his job is not contingent on Champions League qualification is technically true, but it does not reflect the strength of the desire and the sense of urgency at every level of Chelsea to see the club back at Europe’s top table as soon as possible.

More of that desire and urgency must be seen on the pitch in the final 13 matches of the campaign, even in the face of a daunting injury situation. Last summer, Chelsea fully expected teething problems and difficult moments during the adaptation process to Maresca’s style of football. There was also a strong belief going into the campaign that the talent level of the first-team squad was worthy of a top-four finish.

Maresca will likely need to get creative with his tactics to halt Chelsea’s slide and keep pace with a resurgent City, Bournemouth and Newcastle United — particularly up front, where Nicolas Jackson’s absence radically changes what the team can and cannot do in the final third.

But even Guardiola’s dominant run in England has been underpinned by a willingness to evolve and adapt his approach to different personnel, circumstances and opponents. Premier League football is an ever-shifting landscape, as the City manager referenced in a recent interview with TNT Sports. “Today, modern football is the way that Bournemouth play, that Newcastle play, like Brighton play,” he said. “Liverpool is a bit like that, like we were (before the injuries). It’s modern football. It’s not positional — you need to rise the rhythm (to an) unbelievable (level).”

Chelsea’s “rhythm” has deserted them in the last nine matches, but the style Maresca was hired to implement is one they are determined to master.