Enzo Maresca was a controversial appointment within the Chelsea fanbase, but whether you were on the “He was sacked by Parma” or “He is the next Pep” side, both sections could admit that the Italian boss has had a very good start to life at Stamford Bridge.
This piece will focus on the fan reaction to an open survey I put out to my following base of over 550,000 over on X, in order to help gauge an idea on how the fans online are feeling at the moment.
Some may say that fans online are reactionary and sometimes they are, including myself, but so are the supporters inside the ground.
It was only a few weeks ago that the matchgoers moaned and groaned against Manchester City on the opening day as the team tried to build up play in a brand new system against a side that has won the last four league titles in a row.
The perspective as a matchgoer seeing this myself has changed since then, with many now supporting and being more patient.
Of course, good results have helped this, but there seems to be a more common understanding that this feels a little bit different to Graham Potter, Frank Lampard and Mauricio Pochettino.
The open survey challenged fans to articulate two points in order to create a balanced view, outlining one positive and one constructive criticism of Enzo Maresca’s coaching so far.
Before we delve into the specific fan answers that I selected, here were a few common responses on both sides…
Positives :
- Consistent ideas and philosophy
- Brilliant at handling the media
- Flexible and adaptable in style
- Improvement in attacking play
Constructive Criticisms :
- Inverting Malo Gusto
- Discipline (most yellow cards in the Premier League)
- Vulnerable to opposition transitions
So, into the specific social media accounts that I chose to feature in this piece for their answers, in which I will expand on their points.
Holami makes some really good points here because as mentioned previously, the identity of the team is clear and it is a stark comparison to previous managers, especially Mauricio Pochettino who only started inverting a fullback which helped the performances toward the very end of the season.
Pochettino’s games felt chaotic and out of control, which led to the team scoring a lot but on the flip side, conceding the most in a league season for Chelsea in Premier League history.
With Maresca, the team is more patient with an approach on the ball of trying to bait the opposition press into a trap, before then exploding with fast attacks down the sides, which comes as a potential negative as Holami says that he would like to see a bit more build up through the middle, with a lot of emphasis on the wing play, where Noni Madueke has thrived.
Nevertheless, Chelsea are creating chances in an abundance and via official data statistics, the club are joint with Arsenal for the most chances created in the Premier League with 24, whilst ranking second in goals scored with 16, only trailing by one to leaders Manchester City.
Sam gained traction with this reply highlighting Maresca’s adaptability which we touched on before, but specifically in game, with one recent example being Brighton.
Chelsea were 4-2 up at half time but in the second half, the players produced a much more composed, mature and professional performance.
After the match, Enzo Maresca outlined that Brighton pressed us in a way in which he was not expecting, perhaps causing cheap giveaways and options to build up or control the game becoming more difficult.
It seemed very clear though that by half time, the Italian boss had figured Fabian Hürzeler’s approach out and the second half became much more in favour of Chelsea, regaining a large possession % and belittling Brighton to just 0.28 xG (expected goals).
Above you can see two graphs which show the difference, the left graphic being the first half, whilst the right graphic being the second half, further backing up Sam’s original point.
On the flip side, he pointed out about Maresca’s use of Christopher Nkunku off the bench, where he was brought on late against Bournemouth (albeit scoring the winner) and then in the 79th minute against Nottingham Forest, where he only managed to touch the ball twice.
There is an argument to be made that Christopher would have suited the game better against this past weekend’s opponents given the fact that he is more clinical than Nicolas Jackson and has better box movement and instinct, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and we can’t look back.
Though, I do believe that he should be getting more chances as a starter, after all, he is Chelsea’s top scorer this season with seven goals.
It will be interesting to see if Maresca does bring him on earlier in matches as this seemed to be a fairly common criticism of the coach so far within the confines of my replies.
For now, it seems that Nkunku is Chelsea’s chief European and domestic cup goal getter.
It is early days, but it is fair to say that Maresca is managing the squad really well. He changed eleven players on two seperate occasions recently, against Barrow and Gent, and we won both games and scored nine goals.
Players like Mudryk, Nkunku, Neto, Tosin and Veiga are finding some really good form in cup competitions and there seems to be a healthy competition around the squad.
Kiernan Dewsbury Hall was interviewed by TNT Sports after the victory against Gent in which he scored the fourth, and was quick to point out the culture that Maresca has built and how the players “love” coming into traiming every day.
Pedro Neto, currently not in the main starting eleven, is clearly happy still, as he spoke to the official Chelsea website on the 25th September (see quote below).
‘With the amount of quality we have here, no one can sleep. As the head coach has said, everyone will not play every game, so we have to work hard and continue to do it every week, in every training session, and every game. ‘That is the mentality I hope will take us to the top.’
🗣️ Pedro Neto to ChelseaFC.com
Even Christopher Nkunku, who as stated earlier despite being top scorer, finds himself not featuring as a reuglar in the Premier League, still understands the position of the head coach.
“I try to be as efficient as possible, whether I start or not. After that, there is a club coach who makes his choices, and we must accept them.”
🗣️ Christopher Nkunku to LondonWorld.com
But, to keep in line with the theme of this article and to create a balanced perspective, supporter Wanmai also chipped in with a very valid criticism of the entirity of the coaching staff but perhaps extending to Bernardo Cueva, the new set piece coach who arrived from Brentford with a big reputation.
The criticisim being offered in this instance is that we are not making enough of the set piece chances offensivley.
Chelsea have indeed scored just the once this season from a corner courtesy of Nicolas Jackson verses Wolves in the stunninhg 6-2 victory.
Clearly, the choices extend beyond Cueva and down to Maresca as you would suspect the coach would identify key set piece takers of which Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez seem to be the main takers, yet Enzo Fernandez has been dissapointing to say the least.
Furthermore, there was / is a case to be put forward to hand Tosin and Veiga starts against tall and physical teams such as Nottingham Forest in order to make sure we match up as best as we can physically, both in defending and attacking situations.
In any case, this is something that the sporting directors may chose to take a closer look at in terms of future squad profiling as the wonders a physically dominant team has done for Arsenal is outstanding.
For now though, the task of scoring more from set pieces will be led by Bernardo Cueva and his innovative ideas and hopefully we will start to see the likes of Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana who has an impressive leap start to take advantage of balls into the box.
Overall though, I believe that the large majority of Chelsea fans are at the happiest they have been since the Clearlake and Todd Boehly consortium took over.
Enzo Maresca is winning fans over in more ways than one, and the club head into the second International break in fourth and have made an impressive start to the season in cup competitions.
Long may this good form continue, Chelsea.
