Enzo Maresca Thread

[King Kante 1,643]

On 18/04/2025 at 12:17, Mhsc said:

I don't really think we've seen Maresca's football since Wes got injured. We have improved in many areas structurally but the way the players have en masse all individually turned to shit has to be down to something and the best hope is that it is down to Maresca's man management. Maybe he simply doesn't have it when it comes to really being a charismatic leader and man manager, as much as he can coach them on positional play.

Seen many times elite support staff try to take on the top job for a few years and it doesn't work out and they go back to being support staff for a top manager. Maresca would be incredible working under a man manager like Carlo for example.

I actually pinpoint it to the Forest game at home. Up to that point, he was rotating the squad quite nicely and making changes early. Essentially, we were wearing teams out then putting on fresh legs to try and finish them off. 

However, in that game Felix and Nkunku fluffed two good chances, at which point he stopes the subs until last knockings, made the tactics more conservative and essentially went to the policy of defend and keep possession at all costs and hope Palmer bails us out. The wheels fell off about 1 month after. Essentially, it appears he got cold feet about that more expansive style - lost trust in the squad members outside the core and reverted to type. 

[Vytis33 1,261]

Simply put the team is noticeably regressing.  As are individual performances minus Cucu and Caicedo

[TheHulk 2,398]

Doesn't matter we're 7th we have been Top 4 most of the season that's what matters according to this fraud. 

[LAM09 7,042]

His comments about us no having any leaders really got to me - https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/you-dont-have-a-leader-Chelsea-boss-enzo-maresca-aims-veiled-dig-at-captain-reece-james-again-as-he-bemoans-lack-of-dressing-room-commanders/ar-AA1DdySM?ocid=BingNewsSerp

It's his role to lead from the touchline and help encourage a youthful squad, not complain about the obvious especially after our current run of form.

[Blue Armour 4,436]

On 19/04/2025 at 06:52, Vytis33 said:

Simply put the team is noticeably regressing.  As are individual performances minus Cucu and Caicedo

Any guesses as to why Cucurella, the previously derided LB of ours, is now a star performer., while previously quality full backs in James and Gusto are looking like shite.

I wonder which of these 3 full backs are being made to invert or play out of position.

[milka 3,390]

One lucky win cannot mask the truth - this is not Chelsea clownlake out !

[DDA 9,924]

I fucking despise this baldy prick.

After a win like that, he should be trying to galvanise the squad by being positive post match instead he is downplaying then importance of getting top 4 to try shun responsibility from himsef. He’s a fucking rat. Can’t stand him.

[TheHulk 2,398]

1 minute ago, DDA said:

I fucking despise this baldy prick.

After a win like that, he should be trying to galvanise the squad by being positive post match instead he is downplaying then importance of getting top 4 to try shun responsibility from himsef. He’s a fucking rat. Can’t stand him.

Didn't think I could dislike someone more than Potter yet the owners keep surprising us.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,526]

Only see ownership getting rid of head coach regardless of everything we may think and knowing the profile of whom they go for,about the best we can hope for if they make a change is Iraola and hope for the best.

Edited April 21 by Duppy Conqueror

[BXL70 396]

Maresca is a good coach, he is the right coach. Blaming every year the coach is not fair, they have all failed to the expectations.

Because expectations are not realistic when you play a full season without decent goalkeeper / striker.

Neither Sanchez nor Jackson are PL level, that's the least we can say.

[gdlk 286]

Lol do i choose Sanchez to be number 1 goalkeeper? Maresco does it so he have to take responsibility for that.. 

[TheHulk 2,398]

1 hour ago, BXL70 said:

Maresca is a good coach, he is the right coach. Blaming every year the coach is not fair, they have all failed to the expectations.

Because expectations are not realistic when you play a full season without decent goalkeeper / striker.

Neither Sanchez nor Jackson are PL level, that's the least we can say.

Who is this all have failed were talking about? Yeah fucking losers like Potter, Poch and Maresca. Not even one top manager in yet since these clowns got here.

[YorkshireBlue 3,264]

7 hours ago, TheHulk said:

Who is this all have failed were talking about? Yeah fucking losers like Potter, Poch and Maresca. Not even one top manager in yet since these clowns got here.

At some point he will be sacked then we can sign another manager we all want to leave after a year, it’s the Chelsea way since Jose 

[Vesper 30,072]

Maresca may have lost Chelsea’s fans, but he has clearly not lost the players

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6294389/2025/04/21/Chelsea-fulham-maresca-fans-players/

Craven Cottage’s quaint layout makes it a particularly awkward venue for a beleaguered manager.

Getting from the dressing room to the dugout requires a long diagonal walk across the pitch in front of the Putney End, in which the away supporters are housed. It can be a lonely journey for a visiting coach if things are going wrong, and Enzo Maresca’s stony-faced trudge while trailing 1-0 at half-time against Fulham on Sunday was about as uncomfortable as it gets.

At the sight of the Chelsea head coach striding across their collective field of vision, a chorus of boos rose in both anger and volume within Chelsea’s away fans, before coalescing into very audible chants of, “W****r”. To those tracking the steady degradation of Maresca’s standing among supporters in recent months, it felt like a clear point of no return.

Around an hour later, Maresca made the same walk as a winner. He opted not to accompany his team to soak in the jubilation sparked by Chelsea’s unexpected late comeback to beat Fulham 2-1. “It was a moment for the players,” the Italian said in his post-match press conference. “They deserved to share that moment with the fans. That’s the reason I left the pitch immediately.”

Presuming he heard the half-time chants, it was probably the correct call. Maresca’s presence in the celebrations was not missed, and at this stage, it feels likely that many Chelsea supporters will never warm to him, even if he manages to deliver Champions League qualification and lift the Conference League at the end of May.

That best-case scenario is looking more possible thanks to the two brilliant finishes from Tyrique George and Pedro Neto that sank Fulham on Sunday and provided the latest signs that while Maresca may have lost the fans, he has not lost the dressing room.

 

Pedro Neto celebrates scoring the winner (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Chelsea were awful in the first 45 minutes, their passive pressing and clunky mechanical passing ceding the initiative to a forceful Fulham before giving up a startlingly soft goal. Taken together with midweek humiliation against Legia Warsaw at Stamford Bridge, it raised the grim notion that this young, vastly expensive squad had tuned out their head coach.

But that had not been the abiding impression of last weekend’s dispiriting 2-2 home draw against Ipswich Town. Chelsea started that game reasonably well, then conceded two sloppy first-half goals that paralysed them amid the audible frustration of the home crowd, before gathering themselves sufficiently to snatch a point (which would have been all three were it not for the trailing glove of Alex Palmer denying Enzo Fernandez in the final seconds).

Faced with a similar choice of accepting a defeat that might have dealt a death blow to their Champions League qualification hopes or fighting back, Chelsea again picked the latter option. Maresca’s double half-time substitution of Reece James and Noni Madueke for Malo Gusto and Jadon Sancho tweaked the balance of the right side without fundamentally altering the system or style of play that has alienated so many supporters.

The biggest change was mindset. Chelsea finally managed to put Fulham under sustained pressure that did not abate even when Maresca made his boldest decision of all: to replace the toiling Nicolas Jackson with Cobham graduate George in the 78th minute. Christopher Nkunku was nowhere to be found, due to what the Italian subsequently cited as a “technical decision”.

Introducing George paid off handsomely inside five minutes and when Neto, switched from the left to the right flank at half-time, lashed in a stoppage-time winner, the wild celebrations in front of the visiting dugout spoke to the sense of togetherness that has endured through Chelsea’s awful run of form. There could be no picturebook player/coach embrace because Maresca ran along the touchline to pump his fists in the direction of the away fans, and was booked for his trouble.

Will it change anything? Chelsea still have all the same problems they had before Neto’s shot found the net. Cole Palmer remains a shadow of the player who wrecked Premier League defences for 18 months. Jackson is struggling to get shots, never mind goals. The midfield is too easily played through, defensive resistance is brittle and the mindless devotion to Maresca’s choreographed possession can make them fatally predictable as well as utterly unwatchable.

 

Tyrique George got Chelsea’s first (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

It is easy to imagine Chelsea finding themselves getting ‘Moyes-ed’ by a stubborn Everton at Stamford Bridge next weekend, prompting fresh waves of supporter anger to bubble to the surface. Beyond that lies a four-game run-in that no top-five contender would choose: Liverpool at home, Newcastle United away, Manchester United at home, Nottingham Forest away.

But there is also a compelling symmetry to the fact that a 2-1 comeback win for Fulham at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day kicked off all of this Chelsea misery. Could avenging that particular defeat be enough to bring about a bigger vibe shift?

Maresca will not win any new admirers among the fanbase for his post-match assertion that this is “already a good season and can become very good if we finish in a Champions League spot”. That may have been more for the benefit of his players, many of whom have worn the pressure of this top-five race very openly in recent weeks.

They do not appear to have given up on Maresca, and at the very least, there is a prideful nature and nascent spirit within this squad, whatever its flaws. It will take more than that to bring Champions League football back to Stamford Bridge next season but Chelsea found fresh hope at Craven Cottage, and hope is where it starts.

[King Kante 1,643]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

Maresca may have lost Chelsea’s fans, but he has clearly not lost the players

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6294389/2025/04/21/Chelsea-fulham-maresca-fans-players/

Craven Cottage’s quaint layout makes it a particularly awkward venue for a beleaguered manager.

Getting from the dressing room to the dugout requires a long diagonal walk across the pitch in front of the Putney End, in which the away supporters are housed. It can be a lonely journey for a visiting coach if things are going wrong, and Enzo Maresca’s stony-faced trudge while trailing 1-0 at half-time against Fulham on Sunday was about as uncomfortable as it gets.

At the sight of the Chelsea head coach striding across their collective field of vision, a chorus of boos rose in both anger and volume within Chelsea’s away fans, before coalescing into very audible chants of, “W****r”. To those tracking the steady degradation of Maresca’s standing among supporters in recent months, it felt like a clear point of no return.

Around an hour later, Maresca made the same walk as a winner. He opted not to accompany his team to soak in the jubilation sparked by Chelsea’s unexpected late comeback to beat Fulham 2-1. “It was a moment for the players,” the Italian said in his post-match press conference. “They deserved to share that moment with the fans. That’s the reason I left the pitch immediately.”

Presuming he heard the half-time chants, it was probably the correct call. Maresca’s presence in the celebrations was not missed, and at this stage, it feels likely that many Chelsea supporters will never warm to him, even if he manages to deliver Champions League qualification and lift the Conference League at the end of May.

That best-case scenario is looking more possible thanks to the two brilliant finishes from Tyrique George and Pedro Neto that sank Fulham on Sunday and provided the latest signs that while Maresca may have lost the fans, he has not lost the dressing room.

 

Pedro Neto celebrates scoring the winner (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Chelsea were awful in the first 45 minutes, their passive pressing and clunky mechanical passing ceding the initiative to a forceful Fulham before giving up a startlingly soft goal. Taken together with midweek humiliation against Legia Warsaw at Stamford Bridge, it raised the grim notion that this young, vastly expensive squad had tuned out their head coach.

But that had not been the abiding impression of last weekend’s dispiriting 2-2 home draw against Ipswich Town. Chelsea started that game reasonably well, then conceded two sloppy first-half goals that paralysed them amid the audible frustration of the home crowd, before gathering themselves sufficiently to snatch a point (which would have been all three were it not for the trailing glove of Alex Palmer denying Enzo Fernandez in the final seconds).

Faced with a similar choice of accepting a defeat that might have dealt a death blow to their Champions League qualification hopes or fighting back, Chelsea again picked the latter option. Maresca’s double half-time substitution of Reece James and Noni Madueke for Malo Gusto and Jadon Sancho tweaked the balance of the right side without fundamentally altering the system or style of play that has alienated so many supporters.

The biggest change was mindset. Chelsea finally managed to put Fulham under sustained pressure that did not abate even when Maresca made his boldest decision of all: to replace the toiling Nicolas Jackson with Cobham graduate George in the 78th minute. Christopher Nkunku was nowhere to be found, due to what the Italian subsequently cited as a “technical decision”.

Introducing George paid off handsomely inside five minutes and when Neto, switched from the left to the right flank at half-time, lashed in a stoppage-time winner, the wild celebrations in front of the visiting dugout spoke to the sense of togetherness that has endured through Chelsea’s awful run of form. There could be no picturebook player/coach embrace because Maresca ran along the touchline to pump his fists in the direction of the away fans, and was booked for his trouble.

Will it change anything? Chelsea still have all the same problems they had before Neto’s shot found the net. Cole Palmer remains a shadow of the player who wrecked Premier League defences for 18 months. Jackson is struggling to get shots, never mind goals. The midfield is too easily played through, defensive resistance is brittle and the mindless devotion to Maresca’s choreographed possession can make them fatally predictable as well as utterly unwatchable.

 

Tyrique George got Chelsea’s first (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

It is easy to imagine Chelsea finding themselves getting ‘Moyes-ed’ by a stubborn Everton at Stamford Bridge next weekend, prompting fresh waves of supporter anger to bubble to the surface. Beyond that lies a four-game run-in that no top-five contender would choose: Liverpool at home, Newcastle United away, Manchester United at home, Nottingham Forest away.

But there is also a compelling symmetry to the fact that a 2-1 comeback win for Fulham at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day kicked off all of this Chelsea misery. Could avenging that particular defeat be enough to bring about a bigger vibe shift?

Maresca will not win any new admirers among the fanbase for his post-match assertion that this is “already a good season and can become very good if we finish in a Champions League spot”. That may have been more for the benefit of his players, many of whom have worn the pressure of this top-five race very openly in recent weeks.

They do not appear to have given up on Maresca, and at the very least, there is a prideful nature and nascent spirit within this squad, whatever its flaws. It will take more than that to bring Champions League football back to Stamford Bridge next season but Chelsea found fresh hope at Craven Cottage, and hope is where it starts.

At best Maresca has realised his system isn't working and threw it to the wind. At worst the players had enough of it and they went direct, e.g. what the players in 07-08 did to Avram. 

Either way, that second half wasn't proof of the players backing him. In fact, the last twenty mins in particular looked very unlike anything we've seen since October, with early shots and the ball being moved between the lines with some semblance of zip. 

[bigbluewillie 1,930]

Just get rid of him now...

He's fucked up our season, with help from Toad, Egg, Clownlake

Just bring in an interim manager and try to find a decent one from now on.

As regards to the league we're going nowhere, so we don't need him.

[Reddish-Blue 2,488]

8 hours ago, King Kante said:

At best Maresca has realised his system isn't working and threw it to the wind. At worst the players had enough of it and they went direct, e.g. what the players in 07-08 did to Avram. 

Either way, that second half wasn't proof of the players backing him. In fact, the last twenty mins in particular looked very unlike anything we've seen since October, with early shots and the ball being moved between the lines with some semblance of zip. 

Almost like our team is built to play a more direct style of football....and what actually contributed to a lot of goals in the first 10-15 games of the season. 

Then the change came through with possession first and the results went from top 6 quality to top 17 quality. 

[Vesper 30,072]

Enzo Maresca needs more Chelsea wins to turn doubters into believers

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6314782/2025/04/28/Chelsea-everton-premier-league-fans-feature/

https://archive.ph/YerPh

The frustration was coming through loud and clear. “Who’s going to stay around after the final home game to see the players walk around the pitch for a lap of appreciation?” a Chelsea supporter asked as he made his way to Stamford Bridge on the London Underground on Saturday. “What’s the point of doing that after everything we have seen this season,” he continued, his friend alongside him agreeing.

Elsewhere in the carriage, with the destination of Fulham Broadway just a few stops away, there were animated discussions about how head coach Enzo Maresca could get Cole Palmer back into form, and whether he was the right man to be in charge. Apart from the odd bewildered tourist or local going about their day, the vast majority of people in the carriage were heading to what most regarded as a ‘must-win’ match at home to Everton and the vibe, like the team’s results in 2025, was mixed.

Maresca has had a lot to say about the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge lately. The Italian praised the crowd after the 1-0 win over Tottenham at the start of the month and then appeared to hold them partly to blame for the 2-2 draw at home against Ipswich Town 10 days later. As Chelsea’s form and performances have dipped this season, Maresca’s popularity has waned. To get a sense of the mood among fans, I watched Saturday’s crucial match from the stands rather than the usual position within the confines of the press box.

Maresca’s job was not on the line against Everton, but Chelsea’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League via a top-five finish were. Given the remaining fixtures are against Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, only three points would do, which they collected thanks to the 1-0 win that put them fifth but level on points with Forest, who have a game in hand.

snip