Official: Enzo MARESCA announced as new Chelsea Head Coach

[Sleeping Dave]

On 06/08/2024 at 11:26, martin1905 said:

And our squad depth pisses all over the others, it's almost embarrassing.

Come on mate. I get that you want to be the positive guy. Nothing wrong with that, I genuinely admire you for that. I wish I could look at the situation with the same pair of rose-tinted glasses. 

But to claim that our squad depth pisses all over the others is embarrassing. Especially since you’ve claimed we have a top three starting XI. If this really would be the case, a top three finish should have been guaranteed already last season.

Well it’s time for me to stick my neck out. I can guarantee you we won’t finish top four, let alone top three. If we are lucky we might be able to push for a top six. But that requires that Marescas strategy doesn’t take months to implement. So far it’s not looking good. 

Arsenal, Man C and Liverpool are guaranteed to finish above us. Despite Liverpool having a new manager. I’d wager we will finish below Villa and  Tottenham. Quite possibly below Man U as well. 

We also have West Ham and Newcastle to consider. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

6 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Come on mate. I get that you want to be the positive guy. Nothing wrong with that, I genuinely admire you for that. I wish I could look at the situation with the same pair of rose-tinted glasses. 

But to claim that our squad depth pisses all over the others is embarrassing. Especially since you’ve claimed we have a top three starting XI. If this really would be the case, a top three finish should have been guaranteed already last season.

Well it’s time for me to stick my neck out. I can guarantee you we won’t finish top four, let alone top three. If we are lucky we might be able to push for a top six. But that requires that Marescas strategy doesn’t take months to implement. So far it’s not looking good. 

Arsenal, Man C and Liverpool are guaranteed to finish above us. Despite Liverpool having a new manager. I’d wager we will finish below Villa and  Tottenham. Quite possibly below Man U as well. 

We also have West Ham and Newcastle to consider. 

Totally get you, my slumbering friend. And there’s a case to say our only REALLY good player is Palmer. BUT despite some early concerns about the team, and I feel we still need steel, I do think Noni, Lavia, Nkunku and Guiu have looked very bright. 

Reecey is still in one piece (though I don’t know if he’s captain material), Cucurella and Caicedo have really improved and we still have players to return. It’s a big season for Colwill and Fofana so let’s see what happens there. 

I’m massively concerned about the contemptible shower who run the club and how they’ve destroyed our identity but on the pitch I think there’s a lot of talent there. 🫶🏻⭐️😁

[Sleeping Dave]

46 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Totally get you, my slumbering friend. And there’s a case to say our only REALLY good player is Palmer. BUT despite some early concerns about the team, and I feel we still need steel, I do think Noni, Lavia, Nkunku and Guiu have looked very bright. 

Reecey is still in one piece (though I don’t know if he’s captain material), Cucurella and Caicedo have really improved and we still have players to return. It’s a big season for Colwill and Fofana so let’s see what happens there. 

I’m massively concerned about the contemptible shower who run the club and how they’ve destroyed our identity but on the pitch I think there’s a lot of talent there. 🫶🏻⭐️😁

It’s getting late for me so I’ll keep it short 😉

I agree we have some talented players. Nkunku, Palmer, Reece James and Chilwell/Cucurella are all players who could play regularly for a title-chasing side. Our problem is that three of them are ridiculously injury-prone. Hopefully they can stay fit for the season.

Caicedo has the potential to be among that group. But other than that, I genuinely don’t think the rest are much better than your average PL footballer. In our case, sadly some of them have weaknesses that aren’t masked by other players strengths, but rather compounded. This is no doubt due to the fact that the squad building has been a right shambles from day one. No coherent strategy other than overpaying for young talent. Doesn’t require much brain to accomplish that sadly… 

[jasonb]

18 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

It’s getting late for me so I’ll keep it short 😉

I agree we have some talented players. Nkunku, Palmer, Reece James and Chilwell/Cucurella are all players who could play regularly for a title-chasing side. Our problem is that three of them are ridiculously injury-prone. Hopefully they can stay fit for the season.

Caicedo has the potential to be among that group. But other than that, I genuinely don’t think the rest are much better than your average PL footballer. In our case, sadly some of them have weaknesses that aren’t masked by other players strengths, but rather compounded. This is no doubt due to the fact that the squad building has been a right shambles from day one. No coherent strategy other than overpaying for young talent. Doesn’t require much brain to accomplish that sadly… 

I would add Gusto  to your list.

 

[Sleeping Dave]

11 minutes ago, jasonb said:

I would add Gusto  to your list.

 

Yeah, I can get along with that. He is the potential to be among that group. It just shows I think that their strategy to buy young talent isn’t necessarily bad in itself. It’s the sheer volume of PE bets they are making that makes the strategy bad. If there isn’t a pathway or idea on how to develop these young lads it’s a pointless exercise. Gusto has been taken cared of in the right way, and consequently developed and is now a much better footballer than when we bought him. 

But I simply can’t see how we are going to be able to do this with 20-25 players? 

[Ham]

 

 

[ROTG]

5 hours ago, Ham said:

 

 

Why did he say anything in the first place??   His only job is to coach the team and surly he and his coaching staff would have spotted these alleged bad habits during the 14 days he had the squad at Cobham prior to the tour of the US

[Mark Kelly]

1 hour ago, ROTG said:

Why did he say anything in the first place??   His only job is to coach the team and surly he and his coaching staff would have spotted these alleged bad habits during the 14 days he had the squad at Cobham prior to the tour of the US

Do you understand how a conversation works?

One side says something the other side ponders on what they said and responds.

Once again you evidently didn't see the interview and are choosing to base your impression on ignorance.

[ROTG]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Do you understand how a conversation works?

One side says something the other side ponders on what they said and responds.

Once again you evidently didn't see the interview and are choosing to base your impression on ignorance.

He was asked by a reporter if it was a habit from last season, and replied, "it is a habit but I don't know if it was from last season".
 

Players still look confused and unsure of their roles when defending while chances hardly flowed against the Champions League winners – who were without a host of their big names.

Vinicius Jr was there, however, and tormented the Chelsea defenders – especially in the first half.

Maresca has already moaned about how his players defend with a high line and they were all over the place again in North Carolina

 

 

Enzo Maresca says he is still trying to get Mauricio Pochettino's philosophy out of his Chelsea players as he does not want them playing such a ludicrously high line.

Chelsea's fifth and final friendly of their United States tour saw them lose 2-1 to Real Madrid, who regularly got in behind the Blues by playing a single pass into the space.

Yet Maresca told reporters that is not what he wants as he said: 'It's a problem we are trying to solve from pre-season since day one. One of my first meetings with the squad was about the amount of goals we conceded last year with the defensive line very high.

'It's something we are trying to work on. Today, offensively, we are there - the patterns are there. We created chances.

'The problem is defensively. When I say "defensively" I don't just mean the defensive line, but in general, all the players. Now it's finished. We head back to London. We have Inter Milan and then an official game.'

Enzo Maresca was not pleased with some of the things he saw from his team in their friendly defeat by Real Madrid

Chelsea will face Manchester City on the first day of the Premier League season. Not wanting Pep Guardiola's side to exploit their naivety, Maresca said: 'It's a habit. We are not working on defensive lines so high. It's a habit from last year, or years ago.

'We are trying to drop the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five metres, just to have some advantage. Last year, we already conceded many goals with this problem. Hopefully we can solve it very soon.'

 

NEXT

[Michael Tucker]

On 30/07/2024 at 19:48, Bison said:

Says a lot about Maresca that he just rolled his players out there with his copy and paste tactics and didn't adjust his game plan to give his team a chance. 

The serious stuff hasn't even started yet, and already there are people bagging Maresca! The more things change, the more they stay the same!

[Bison]

28 minutes ago, Michael Tucker said:

The serious stuff hasn't even started yet, and already there are people bagging Maresca! The more things change, the more they stay the same!

A small tremor is often the precursor to an earthquake. Serious stuff may not have started yet but we look rubbish. 

[Mark Kelly]

1 hour ago, ROTG said:

He was asked by a reporter if it was a habit from last season, and replied, "it is a habit but I don't know if it was from last season".
 

Players still look confused and unsure of their roles when defending while chances hardly flowed against the Champions League winners – who were without a host of their big names.

Vinicius Jr was there, however, and tormented the Chelsea defenders – especially in the first half.

Maresca has already moaned about how his players defend with a high line and they were all over the place again in North Carolina

 

 

Enzo Maresca says he is still trying to get Mauricio Pochettino's philosophy out of his Chelsea players as he does not want them playing such a ludicrously high line.

Chelsea's fifth and final friendly of their United States tour saw them lose 2-1 to Real Madrid, who regularly got in behind the Blues by playing a single pass into the space.

Yet Maresca told reporters that is not what he wants as he said: 'It's a problem we are trying to solve from pre-season since day one. One of my first meetings with the squad was about the amount of goals we conceded last year with the defensive line very high.

'It's something we are trying to work on. Today, offensively, we are there - the patterns are there. We created chances.

'The problem is defensively. When I say "defensively" I don't just mean the defensive line, but in general, all the players. Now it's finished. We head back to London. We have Inter Milan and then an official game.'

Enzo Maresca was not pleased with some of the things he saw from his team in their friendly defeat by Real Madrid

Chelsea will face Manchester City on the first day of the Premier League season. Not wanting Pep Guardiola's side to exploit their naivety, Maresca said: 'It's a habit. We are not working on defensive lines so high. It's a habit from last year, or years ago.

'We are trying to drop the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five metres, just to have some advantage. Last year, we already conceded many goals with this problem. Hopefully we can solve it very soon.'

 

NEXT

So you didn't see it then,

Next

[RDCW]

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

So you didn't see it then,

Next

Why bother engaging with the goat-botherer? He is just not very bright and seems to get an unnatural thrill from contributing to the sum of human unhappiness. Heed Mark Twain (perhaps😉 - or Jean Cocteau) on arguing with idiots.

Edited August 9 by RDCW

[Mark Kelly]

3 hours ago, ROTG said:

  

 

Sounds very threatening for a man of God to be honest 

[ROTG]

5 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

So you didn't see it then,

Next

Obviously all the papers in the world are liers or misquoted what he said. 

[Mark Kelly]

I wouldn't worry too much , Maresca is clueless and will be out of a job by October , Chelsea will be relegated and the two creamcake idiots will go the same way .

 

Am I doing it right ? 

[Ham]

30 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

I wouldn't worry too much , Maresca is clueless and will be out of a job by October , Chelsea will be relegated and the two creamcake idiots will go the same way .

 

Am I doing it right ? 

Just realised you can't type the other name for Maresca anymore.  😂

Very clever.  

Edited August 9 by Ham

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

I wouldn't worry too much , Maresca is clueless and will be out of a job by October , Chelsea will be relegated and the two creamcake idiots will go the same way .

 

Am I doing it right ? 

Whatever floats your boat MK.

[JaneB]

1 hour ago, ROTG said:

Whatever floats your boat MK.

I've deleted an earlier post of yours to @RDCW which was seriously unpleasant and this is far from the first time you've upset other members so am going to send you on a little holiday to give you time to think about whether you really want to be on here. 

[martin1905]

So, how about a little healthy deabte as opposed to everyone bickering about the rights and wrongs of the ownership, there's so much actual football knowledge on this place but it's been lost amongst the bickering for some time now so let's see if we can put that to one side and look at our current squad and see how we will get on this season.

I'll start with the defence as I think it's the most interesting. I'd line up with....

James-Fofana-Colwill-Cucurella

.....with Cucurella playing as the inverted FB and James becoming the 3rd CB.

We know one of the full backs will step into midfield, the interesting thing will be which one. There's a very good argument it should be Cucurella, he played that role towards the end of last season, and I said so at the time, as well as anyone I've seen and I'll explain why.

Lots of people seem to think the role of an inverted FB is to become some sort of midfield maestro like Pirlo but it really isn't. There's a reason FB's are FB's and not midfielders.  Look at Trent, he's apparently so good on the ball he actually went to the Euros as a our number 8, literally and he's absolutely pony in midfield. Theres so much more to it that having a good passing range.

The main attributes are more physical and mental. They need to have a very high level of understanding and reading of the game, know when to step up, when to get back, be able to read the danger long before it happens and most importantly have the physical attributes to pretty much play two positions at the same time. The easy bit is stepping up and playing as a 6. He's only really there to keep it simple, recycle possession and allow one of the other CM's to step higher up the pitch in a more advanced role, which is the whole point, it's not about having FB's trying to be Pirlo.

Now, can Reece do it? Personally I'm not sure and feel he would be much better suited to being the one that becomes the 3rd CB. In this role I think he could be a monster. An outrageous ball playing CB with the ability to break out with the ball at his feet. Some will say him not playing as a traditional FB, bombing up and down the wing will negate a lot of his strengths but in the 3rd CB role he can still do it, just not as much. Is it a bit of a waste of his talents? Absolutely but we are not going to play with a traditional FB and he could be so good in this role. So good. I'd certainly rather see him play like this than as the inverted FB.

Now, this is where it gets interesting,  at least in the sense that, and I keep banging on about this, just how versatile a squad we have......

Gusto I think is much better suited to playing as the inverted FB as opposed to the 3rd CB. I think we would all agree with that.  I also think, like Cucurella he could be very, very good at it. In this instance, or if indeed we use Reece there I think the perfect LB would be Colwill. He's more than capable of starting at LB but moving into CB when Gusto, or James, steps up. He's pretty much made for that role. 

When everyone's fit I think we will predominantly see these two set ups....

James-Fofana-Colwill-Cucurella

Which will look like this when we have the ball.....

James-Fofana-Colwill

Caicedo-Cucurella

Or....

Gusto-Disasi-Fofana-Colwill

Which will look like this...

Disasi-Fofana-Colwill

Gusto-Caicedo

I don't necessarily think that even though I assume James and Cucurella will be first choice, if everyone's fit, the second set up is necessarily weaker. It's an option to use when maybe we need a bit more height or physicality at the back.  Again it's about the versatility of our squad and having options, being able to make changes depending on the opposition without massively weakening our starting line up. 

 

 

 

 

[martin1905]

Now, moving on to the midfield/attack,  this is where it gets really exciting for me with so many options depending on the opposition. I think it's safe to assume Caicedo will start as the 6 with two 8/10's just infornt of him. A lot of talk of Palmer playing there and we should probably assume Enzo starts too so.......

Palmer-Caicedo-Enzo.....

Is what I'll use as a staring point. If that's the case then I assume Nkunku starts from the left, something he has done a lot of and is very good at, although I prefer him as a 10 it may be that in this system he's more suited to starting from the left. With Palmer being more central and the imminent signing of Neto it's probably safe to assume he will occupy the RW spot.

In this example with the ball it will look something like this...

James-Fofana-Colwill

Caicedo-Cucurella 

Neto-Palmer-Enzo-Nkunku

Jackson

Gets me excited thinking about that line up, it really does but what's more exciting is the sheer amount of options we have, again depending on the opposition. 

Against the better sides I think we may try to utilise Caicedo slightly higher up the pitch as he is so good at pressing high and winning the ball back. Also this is where I think Dewsbury-Hall comes in as he is so well rounded.

I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this, against the better sides........

James-Fofana-Colwill 

Lavia-Cucurella 

Palmer-Caicedo-Desbury-Hall-Neto

Nkunku

I've put Nkunku there as I think, if he stays fit, he will play as much as anyone. He along with Palmer, Caicedo and Neto will play the vast majority of games. The others will be fighting amongst themselves and picked depending on opposition. 

We've then got to think about how we line up against teams when we expect to have very high levels of possession, teams who we historically struggle to break down who play a really low block. These are the games where we can really throw caution to the wind as we will spend most of the time in the opponents half, with the ball. There would be a good argument that these are not the games for Caicedo. Wasted as a 6 and not really, as good as he is, that great further up the pitch. These are the games we can gamble with Enzo as the 6 as he won't need to be doing much defensive work.

Just imagine, playing an out of form Sheffield United from last season, one of the worst teams in the history of the league and instead of struggling to a 2-2 draw we line up like this.......

James-Fofana-Colwill 

Enzo-Cucurella

Neto-Palmer-Nkunku-Sterling

Jackson

Could, potentially, be devastating. Been a long time since we have lined up so offensively and really gone at teams A long, long time.

I've tried to keep it simple with a core group of players as, due to our depth and versatility it gets silly if you start putting in Madueke for Neto or Desbury-Hall in for one of the midfielders or Sterling on the left.  We have so many options it's ridiculous so I've tried to keep the same set of players and just changed one or two, depending on the level of opposition. 

[My Blood Is Blue]

Great posts and analysis @martin1905, thank you!

I think what you’ve described and the players you’ve mentioned are largely what I would go with, with my main question mark being over Enzo. I really do worry he doesn’t have the engine and speed to cope with this system and the need to move into attack and back into midfield depending on the phase of play. KDH is much more suited to this, as he has shown at Leicester, so it will be interesting to see how the season goes for Enzo, I think it’s a big one for him.

The other are of concern is the striker. I like Jackson as a player and I do believe he has the potential to become a really good player for us, but he’s definitely not consistent in front of goal and with all the attacking players we have behind him, he’ll no doubt be getting plenty of chances… will he take them all though? No. So do we need to strengthen there still to get a top level prolific striker? I believe we do.

Finally… goalkeeper. We have loads of them, but not a clear number 1, at least not one that is good enough to be a stand out number 1 and that’s going to cost us.

The big positive for me in terms of our squad are probably the full backs, if we can keep them all fit, as I think they fit so well into the system Maresca wants to play, as you described so well. If we can get some consistency from Colwill and Fofana, we actually end up with a pretty decent defence.

Plenty for us to be excited about, but I do think the excitement is more on potential and ‘on paper’ at the moment.

[RDCW]

16 hours ago, martin1905 said:

Now, moving on to the midfield/attack,  this is where it gets really exciting for me with so many options depending on the opposition. I think it's safe to assume Caicedo will start as the 6 with two 8/10's just infornt of him. A lot of talk of Palmer playing there and we should probably assume Enzo starts too so.......

Palmer-Caicedo-Enzo.....

Is what I'll use as a staring point. If that's the case then I assume Nkunku starts from the left, something he has done a lot of and is very good at, although I prefer him as a 10 it may be that in this system he's more suited to starting from the left. With Palmer being more central and the imminent signing of Neto it's probably safe to assume he will occupy the RW spot.

In this example with the ball it will look something like this...

James-Fofana-Colwill

Caicedo-Cucurella 

Neto-Palmer-Enzo-Nkunku

Jackson

Gets me excited thinking about that line up, it really does but what's more exciting is the sheer amount of options we have, again depending on the opposition. 

Against the better sides I think we may try to utilise Caicedo slightly higher up the pitch as he is so good at pressing high and winning the ball back. Also this is where I think Dewsbury-Hall comes in as he is so well rounded.

I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this, against the better sides........

James-Fofana-Colwill 

Lavia-Cucurella 

Palmer-Caicedo-Desbury-Hall-Neto

Nkunku

I've put Nkunku there as I think, if he stays fit, he will play as much as anyone. He along with Palmer, Caicedo and Neto will play the vast majority of games. The others will be fighting amongst themselves and picked depending on opposition. 

We've then got to think about how we line up against teams when we expect to have very high levels of possession, teams who we historically struggle to break down who play a really low block. These are the games where we can really throw caution to the wind as we will spend most of the time in the opponents half, with the ball. There would be a good argument that these are not the games for Caicedo. Wasted as a 6 and not really, as good as he is, that great further up the pitch. These are the games we can gamble with Enzo as the 6 as he won't need to be doing much defensive work.

Just imagine, playing an out of form Sheffield United from last season, one of the worst teams in the history of the league and instead of struggling to a 2-2 draw we line up like this.......

James-Fofana-Colwill 

Enzo-Cucurella

Neto-Palmer-Nkunku-Sterling

Jackson

Could, potentially, be devastating. Been a long time since we have lined up so offensively and really gone at teams A long, long time.

I've tried to keep it simple with a core group of players as, due to our depth and versatility it gets silly if you start putting in Madueke for Neto or Desbury-Hall in for one of the midfielders or Sterling on the left.  We have so many options it's ridiculous so I've tried to keep the same set of players and just changed one or two, depending on the level of opposition. 

It's certainly a brilliant squad. If Maresca is a half decent coach top 4 will be a breeze.

[RDCW]

34 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Great posts and analysis @martin1905, thank you!

I think what you’ve described and the players you’ve mentioned are largely what I would go with, with my main question mark being over Enzo. I really do worry he doesn’t have the engine and speed to cope with this system and the need to move into attack and back into midfield depending on the phase of play. KDH is much more suited to this, as he has shown at Leicester, so it will be interesting to see how the season goes for Enzo, I think it’s a big one for him.

The other are of concern is the striker. I like Jackson as a player and I do believe he has the potential to become a really good player for us, but he’s definitely not consistent in front of goal and with all the attacking players we have behind him, he’ll no doubt be getting plenty of chances… will he take them all though? No. So do we need to strengthen there still to get a top level prolific striker? I believe we do.

Finally… goalkeeper. We have loads of them, but not a clear number 1, at least not one that is good enough to be a stand out number 1 and that’s going to cost us.

The big positive for me in terms of our squad are probably the full backs, if we can keep them all fit, as I think they fit so well into the system Maresca wants to play, as you described so well. If we can get some consistency from Colwill and Fofana, we actually end up with a pretty decent defence.

Plenty for us to be excited about, but I do think the excitement is more on potential and ‘on paper’ at the moment.

Notwithstanding the cultural asset-stripping and incomprehensibly voracious acquisitiveness,  the ownership has put together a good squad of players.

[Ham]

7 minutes ago, RDCW said:

Notwithstanding the cultural asset-stripping and incomprehensibly voracious acquisitiveness,  the ownership has put together a good squad of players.

Someone got a thesaurus for their last birthday 👀