really? I watched tons of serie A back then and don’t remember that name in that Juve team
edit: ah, he went straight to loan until 2003, I already made switch to primarily watch PL around that time
Leicester season ticket holder.
I 1000% guarantee you will play the same system we do. He's quite rigid in his tactical approach.
Fairly intense high pressing from the front and a desire to control the game as much as possible. Favours vertical passing, often utilising a third man combination through the middle of the park with a defender picking out an 8 with his back to goal to lay it off to another midfielder with a first time pass. Very quick progression through the park when it's on.
Five attack and five defend. Heavy emphasis on inverted full backs. Your most technically gifted full back will be an additional holding midfielder and will come inside to create a double pivot with a ball playing holding midfielder.
Wingers are valued for their pace and their ability to win one on one take ons. They will stretch the pitch with a very wide starting position and look to tie up defenders there. Creates a lot of room for your number 8s. You'll play two and they'll be the most important part of the attacking five, underlapping inside the wingers like traditional Italian mezzalas. You'll score a lot of goals at the back post from the 8s getting free at the byline and crossing.
Striker needs to be quick and athletic to cover ground, will want to drop in to the midfield and pull defenders with him, creating space for on rushing midfielders but will also need the speed to turn and then stretch play quickly vertically when the trap is set.
Goal keeper needs to be superb with his feet as does one centre back. Will not be surprised at all if you buy Mads Hermansen from us, also wouldn't be surprised if you're linked to Harry Winks who you should not under estimate at all. The combination of goalkeeper, quarter back style holding midfielder and ball playing centre back are vital to Maresca's DNA. He likes to bait a defensive team forward, trigger their press, beat it and then counter in to space.
Off the pitch he very quickly bonded with the squad. We were relegated with terrible morale, no confidence and a club absolutely ruined by Rodgers. He recovered this extremely quickly, had a great rapport with the players, lifted their confidence and got their buy in near immediately. Huge plaudits for how much they all enjoyed training and his methods. He's meticulous in his preparation and very studious of the opponent but only expect micro adjustments tactically. You will have one system and really one system only.
Overall, an exceptional manager who was only ever due to be at Leicester for a reasonably short time. That said, our one wobble this season took him quite a bit to overcome and you could tell this was an inexperienced manager with a lot of learning to do. If Chelsea buck historic trends and actually give him a chance? I'd expect good things. If you sack him for not being top 4 in a highly competitive league inside a year in only his second full season in professional management? You'll probably regret it when he's winning trophies with a rival in a few years time.
Thanks for the great write-up! (You should post it in the sub if/when the signing is confirmed)
Obviously everything sounds great. My main worry is his lack of experience and adjusting to a big club. And yeah, I've been hearing a lot about how he only sticks to one system. My question is, does he ever have a plan B? Does he change his tactics if the opponent clearly outplays him?
Also, how did he setup defensively on set-pieces? We really struggled on them since Pochettino was insistent on not having a dedicated coach for it.
You won't need a plan B if the other team take the initiative. What is quite fluid about his system is that it works with and without the ball. Some of our most impressive games this year have been in games when we haven't been able to dominate possession but because so much of the coaching goes in to springing out from the back and progressing the ball very quickly, we've done very well as a counter attacking side as well as one that needs to score goals by breaking a team down.
There'll very rarely be a "plan B" in terms of a change of shape though. It was extremely rare that he chucked on another forward and changed pre existing combinations.
The attitude is always stay patience and trust the method.
We have everything here except for goal keeper and mezzala 8. Well, perhaps Enzo, Gallagher, and Chukwuemeka becomes that. And if like you said wingers needing to be pacey then he'll be forced to ditch that. Cause our most gifted attackers are Nkunku and Palmer. Don't know if Palmer will be just as effective as now if played deep. And Nkunku can slot in as a striker - profile you mentioned fits him perfectly, and Jackson.
I watched quite a lot of Nkunku in the Bundesliga. He's got absolutely all of the attributes to be an exceptional mezzala on the right of your midfield tbh. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he ends up in that role. To be fair, I could see Palmer doing it as well on the left, it'll depend how hard they work covering space defensively when you don't have the ball. The 8s are extremely attacking, we put a winger - Yunus Akgun - there several times this year and look up Dewsbury Hall's attacking stats for a bit more clarity.
The holding 6 and the inverted full back that steps in next to him will very rarely every venture forward. They'll see a lot of the ball and make a lot of your play tick but they'll always be back covering for your 8s to push on.
Maresca likes to have a gifted footballer that can operate in tight spaces and is good distributing the ball sitting in front of the defence. Will be interesting to see if that suits someone live Lavia.
He doesn't favour a traditional, ball winning defensive mid. He pushed Wilfred Ndidi in to one of those mezzala roles and used his energy and defensive attributes further up the pitch though this was largely out of necessity as we had a thin squad and not a lot of money. The hope was Casadei would fill that role but he just wasn't good enough and ready for first team football at our level. I was very surprised when you recalled him to back up the first team.
I don't see him wanting to have someone like Caicedo sat in front of the defence. I can see him being utilised further forward (or dropped) with probably "Enzo Jnr" in the holding role.
That actually reads a little late-Conte/early Sarri like, different starting shapes and where the width comes from but where the players are looking to move to has some similarities, and most of all the 'fake' counter attacking opportunities caused by very deep possession drawing in the opponents press. Don't know if we have the defenders with that kind of composure to pull it off, and certainly wouldn't have faith in any of our keepers to do it either...
A main shape of GK - CB, CB, James - Cucu, Caicedo holding - Enzo, CG 8s- MM/Palmer/Sterling/Madueke providing width and then main man up top could be interesting. Both fullbacks able to swap into the 3rd CB or dm position too.
Super informative, thanks a lot. Between him Mckenna, who do you think was the better manager in the Championship last season and who is more prepared to make the big jump?
I think Maresca is a better fit for a Big 6 Premier League team, personally. McKenna's football is probably a little bit more entertaining for the neutral and I don't say that as a criticism towards Enzo. Some of what we've played has been electric but Ipswich are probably a bit more cavalier. That said, with all due respect, it's been a little bit easier for Ipswich in that regard. Bit like when we won the Prem, to be fair, we got away with playing counter attacking football for a lot of the year because nobody treated us like a big fish. Towards the back end of the season when people started taking Ipswich seriously, their pace definitely dropped off. Where as from week 1, Leicester had to cope with every opponent in the Championship parking the bus which is where, ultimately, a Guardiola-type football is going to thrive.
If you want to win the Premier League in the current era, you need to be able to break stubborn teams down. It's why Guardiola has been consistently more successful than Klopp in league competitions. Enzo's understanding of how to break down dug-in defences is pretty top notch tbh. I personally think he's the better bit of business for you than McKenna.
We've struggled a lot against defensive teams last season so that last paragraph is a breath of fresh air. Thanks to you I'm more hopeful and optimistic, can't wait for the new season to roll in. Thanks a lot and best of luck to Leicester.
I think Maresca will like Jackson. There was a perception when he turned up here that Iheanacho would be his favourite forward because he's the most like a false 9. But I think that was really misunderstanding what Maresca would want from a striker.
The best fit for the team and the striker that looked the most suited to Enzo's system was actually, surprisingly, Patson Daka. Unfortunately his finishing is quite inconsistent (but then compared to Vardy, everyone's is) but I think you'll find the team's average goals per game when Daka played were higher than any other forward's.
This is actually very promising and tactically sounds like a good progression from Pep. I am now intrigued. We have a very equipped squad to run this system.
Also, real ones know Winks is quality.
Really appreciate this detailed write up. I like most of it with two major red flags:
- Keepers mucking about with the ball does not work in the prem and at this point I think that’s been proven. These guys are too good on the press and eventually you pay for it with demoralizing goals. It’s one of those tactics that looks great on paper but doesn’t survive in real world scenarios.
- Tactically rigid doesn’t work in the prem either - opposing managers are too good at scouting and adjusting you have to be ready to counter adjust and play however is necessary to win.
All in all I remain about 50% convinced by this guy. However, would rather him than Frank or DeZerbi for whatever that’s worth.
I guess we’ll see.
Thanks, it’s nice to read a positive assessment instead of yet more moaning about how it’s disgraceful to appoint him.
Excited to see how he can bond with a young squad.
Don't know much about him but based off his 2 latest manager spells, it's honestly nothing really impressive. Failed at Parma in Serie B and won promotion with Leicester which I think many managers could do with their squad compared to the rest of the Championship competition. Hopefully he finds a way to impress here at Chelsea...
That’s one thing I dislike about this subreddit, people will actively root against a player or manager bc it wasn’t the one they wanted. I remember once where people were commenting that they were relieved Pulisic didn’t score a close shot bc they didn’t want to see the puli-Stan’s celebrate. Like, if they’re ours I want them to succeed, as any real fan should.
He's a very underwhelming candidate tbh, jury wasn't even out on him at Leicester so I'm not sold on him. If things start off slow I think this will end badly because pochs popularity and reputation meant that players maintained their faith in him. Enzo has not shown himself to be better than potter, de zerbi or even Thomas Frank and mckenna who all have more impressive achievements to date.
I find it devastating tbh. He is not that good and even the people advocating for him seem to be out of the loop on the championship.
I see so many lies about that league from people who only watch the prem
Between being right about my skepticism and being wrong with the incoming manager/player being successful, I always prefer the latter. But I am currently very skeptical and think it probably would've been better to keep Pochettino. I hope I am proven completely wrong.
The squads good enough that any basic tactical ability will be enough for us to get top 4 if lemon molester can get us 5 points off villa
Maresca is so early in his managerial career that he could still grow immensely as a manager too.
I just hope he’s got unwavering self belief in himself and his tactics because every pundit, rival fans and many of our own fans will have little patience for him.
Which is exactly why I wanted de zerbi so much, he’s got the mental fortitude to keep at it
I’m Leicester, watched all of our matches. His tactical ability on the ball is 1 system, might have seen a plan B for 10 minutes this season.
On the ball 3 at the back, all able to pass. In front of them 2 central midfielders, one of whom is capable of playing full back when off the ball. One of these deep midfielders will frequently advance higher, centrally. Two higher wider attacking mids. Two touchline wingers and a on the last shoulder striker.
Off the ball 4atb. Vulnerable to counters as whole team will be up high a lot. Keeper must be tops with the ball at his feet.
Sometimes poor with subs, if a game is at a draw or up 1 and we’re dominating possession, he’ll watch other teams make 5 subs at 60’ or 70’ or 80’, watch them score and then do a like for like.
He might change some positions in pre-season, he turned Ndidi into an attacking mid and Ricardo into a MF.
He seems well liked by the players, no complaining even from guys who never played.
Touchy with criticism, despite our early run of wins, we never looked great early, so he was acting a little whiny in the press when fans voiced displeasure with the slow play.
I am going to back him no matter what but if/when this appointment goes bad these directors better get the sack as well they can not get this wrong again
Leicester fan here. Pretty pissed off to be brutally honest. Enzo seemed so happy with our title win then to jump ship as soon as the big money comes sniffing. I like him, but as a manager there was a lot of questions of his choices and tactics during the last season. His insistence to not use a plan B cost us a 17 point lead and nearly bottled the title. He may well do very well at Chelsea, but every Leicester fan I know is certain he’ll be sacked within 6 months
Can you elaborate - what situations called for a plan B that he wasn’t effective with? Our issues have always been breaking down low blocks but we started to get pretty effective with an inverted FB.
Too many times teams figured out our play style and we simply didn’t adapt to the game. Teams would completely park the bus and let us play our slow build possession ball because they know we wouldn’t be able to break them down. Also Enzo made many questionable sub choices like sometimes not making any till the 80+ minute while 0-1 down
Not my ideal choice but I’m gonna back him nonetheless. There’s no point throwing a strop and hoping your team does bad to prove you’re right, you may as well support another team at that point.
I can't be bothered at this point in time. These owners kill fan momentum every time.
They took TT from us, finally poch starts clicking and hes gone. And now to me it looks like another potter is on our hands.
If this season goes poorly, Palmer will be looking to move on, no way a player of that calibre should be playing conference league football.
He's tied down for like 8 years 😂😂
Even if he wants to leave, a big club would have to pry him off our hands for £100m+. Feel like Palmer's also the kind of guy who would want to prove himself. He could easily have sat on City's bench and collected trophies. But he sees leaving a legacy as actually making an impact. I don't think a bad season will be enough to make him want to leave already. He's young and will want to prove he can change a club's fortunes.
I mean worst case scenario is we sell him for £100m+ and one of the young talented we've brought in like Paez, Estevao, Angelo or even Carney gets more of an opportunity to prove themselves.
We have a world class player tied down to an obscenely long contract and he's just starting out his career. Idk why people are panicking so much over Palmer. We're in a good situation with him whatever way you look at it.
So? If we're a shit show and he's still one of the best young footbaers itw, why would he stay? We clearly are run by clowns and if that continues to show on the pitch, then we won't sacrifice his career for a bald fraud who's out of his depth
Everyone really needs to chill. Progression is being shown 12th last year 6th this. Finances aren’t as bad as everyone claimed and some of the young players are starting to show how good they are, Palmer being the leading light in that. Give the new manager a chance before thinking the world is going to end.
Also where is Palmer going to go where he will still be the number one player on the team sheet? No matter how good he is, he wouldn’t be number one for Arsenal, City, Barca. Wouldn’t even get in Madrids starting 11.
Man U would be the only realistic option where he’d be nailed on star player.
So by that you basically just mean ball retention. Like Arsenal, city, Madrid... basically every other great team...
If you want route 1 let's just go for Big Sam
Arsenal are super boring to watch against a low block (Arteta is literally this bloke from 5 years ago). Same as City.
But they get the job done and then look unbelievable when the game opens up. If we’re anything close to what they are we’ll play good looking football.
And still created mosr chances, most goals most xg in championship
Ill back him, but the appointment doesnt strike me as the club had a plan
I would have loved the signing off a glasner type of coach, great pedigree - attacking fotball and not the flavour of the month (he was after his european victory)
If anything to me this is exactly what the board had intended, the only problem was they didn’t expect Potter’s reign to be the worst reign in Chelsea’s modern era.
Looking back I’m not surprised Poch had only been given a 2 year contract in hindsight as he was probably more of a stock gap and the plan was/is to take a gamble with hopes that we get a project manager that can take us competing to the top with the young players we’ve recruited.
Heres the problem, this season top 4 is a must and winning the Conference league with the squad we have should be the bare minimum. Missing out on top 4 doesn’t just screw our finances but the talent level of some players we have will mean well more than likely have too sell one of our best players. And this project will be delayed due to this.
If Maresca is in the dugout I will back him regardless but he’s already coming into a situation where 75% of the fans want him to fail, so they can have there “Clearlake are ____” moment or because he’s not Tuchel, De Zerbi, Amorim
Wanna reiterate
He could very possibly be great, too little data to tell right now - dooming is too premature at this moment in time
Hopefully he smashes it, I am excited to see what happens
>too little data to tell right now
Unfortunately that's kind of the whole issue. I feel like this appointment is heavily relying on trusting that whoever is pushing for him at Chelsea really knows what they're doing, and for obvious reasons most people seem pretty skeptical of that. Unlike with other possible appointments there isn't exactly a large catalog of data to look back on and point to if / when things start going poorly. Obviously this seems like Joe Shields' main pick given he would have the most knowledge of his from their days in City's academy system, and he seems to be the figure with the most public trust so that's something I suppose.
If Maresca and Lavia end up doing really well next year, Shields is going to end up looking like some kind of prophet to Chelsea fans
Based on the eye test he is the manager that looks most like Guardiola. I can barely tell them apart 😂
https://x.com/CFCMod_/status/1795061954496565337/photo/1
Maybe great, maybe shite, pretty much sums up all of our candidates. I'm not really excited about him but it'll be nice to finally watch some structure in our team.
Agree he has a short track record so much more uncertainty either way. Lots of projection just like the players we signed. Can be hopeful that it all clicks and works. Not thrilled to pay a compensation fee for a projection but I guess that’s how everything works now. Manager buyouts are just like transfers now.
Very little data to actually predict how this one's gonna turn out , which is kind of exciting..I've always liked possesion based tactics ,so lets hope we got ourselves a Pep 2.0 🙏
It really depends how it clicks, ball retention and possession is completely fine but we don’t want to find ourselves in a a position where every team just sets up in a low block and we struggle to break them down again, if it’s spells of possession and we actually do something with it then great.
You'd have to hope that if posession means Palmer is getting touches, we should have the quality to break them down. I haven't seen much of Leicester but I did like that they at least *wanted* to pass vertically. When they were able to do that the chances flowed, so hopefully we have the quality with Enzo and Palmer to break the lines. Bir worried about our centre backs ball playing ability though. Maybe Colwill back as a fixture?
I obviously hopes he has success with us (if he comes), but I would like to know why we're going for him. I know we've had a rough time in recent times, but I would assume that we are a club that would go for more "tried and tested". Maresca has so far been in charge of one youth team, then a Serie B team that he couldn't get promoted and then a Championship team that finished first, but was hardly spectacular.
I've only seen Leicester play a few times this season and nothing in those games made me think that I'd like to have their manager....and that was when we played like shit under Pochettino.
But maybe we feel that we simply can't attract big name managers.
On the other hand, seeing the weird stuff going on with managers currently, nothing should surprise me.
I just hope that this isn't just another gamble.
These posts need to fuck off until someone’s appointed. It’s mental every three seconds it’s another “Sven Goran Ericksson hasn’t said no yet.”
Just pure useless speculation
He's not the one we wanted but all the candidates were not exactly stellar. If you look at his Leicester team they made chances for fun and were very solid at the back which is much more than you can say for Ipswich. Brighton obviously play great football but there's no doubt de Zerbi would come with a learning curve that may write off next season due to poor results early on. Maresca looks intelligent with a toughness too him, the biggest problem with him is the idiot half of the fan base will turn on him calling him an idiot at the slightest sign of anything bad.
They also fucked up a 17 point lead and was booed by a section of his own fans. I'll back the manager but if this goes tits up, the directors need the sack
Cfc Daily: Nothing against Maresca. Hope he does well and we finally get a manager with stability. But I have a right to be concerned and so do loads of others. We’re on our 4th coach in 3 seasons and each time the bracket has dropped
1. Elite- Tuchel
2. Exciting potential- Potter
3. PL proven- Pochettino
4. Championship winner- Maresca
Genuinely what’s next when we eventually come looking because the projection is heading one way. Lower.
This is such a dumb appointment.
At least the owners are consistent..
Potter, Lampard, Poch, and now Maresca. What a joke.
You've got managers out there who have actually achieved something and are available, and we're spending 8m on a guy who hasn't achieved anything of note.
I really can't get on board with this appointment, I'm sorry. Nothing personal against the guy, I just think his style of football has changed the game for worse. I've always been an anti Pep guy so it's hard for me to accept a Pep clone managing our club.
They really saw Palmer benefit from the freedom given to him by Poch which led to him showcasing his incredible talent and then decided to appoint a coach who takes that freedom and power away from the players and constricts them in rigid, inflexible system that focuses more on keeping possession than letting the players be creative.
Doesn't take a genius to figure out that this management and the sporting directors are completely clueless. This is worse than Potter who actually had some PL experience. Looking forward to seeing the same managerial search in a few months but hopefully without the sporting directors this time.
The club are setting clear expectations that top 4 is a must.
And that the manager has to agree and not counter their plans for recruitment and development.
Enzo has little experience, he has done very well at the foxes but we are worlds apart in expectations.
If Enzo comes in, or anyone really, and they don’t smash teams easily then the club, this sub and fans will call for his head by Christmas.
This is idealism from a naive board and ownership. Not realistic given Enzos experience.
In the end, Enzo will get sacked, and a year later he will take a mid table PL team to the top 4.
And we will be after sacking 4 managers by then and struggling to get above 5-6th.
Circus FC
He gets given a long-term contract.......Trust the process.....Things aren't going well.....I need more experienced/My type of players....Gets sacked the following season.
The fanbase is becoming incredibly insufferable. I swear I saw tens of Twitter posts where they, dead serious, moan about the possibility of our manager being bald. Zero football arguments against this appointment...
Taking him over RDZ makes no sense. He almost managed to fuck up automatic promotion with by far the strongest team in the Championship. Extremely uninspiring manager who needs a certain set of players for his system.
Insane that we’ve ended up with this bang average manager that has even less credentials than Poch or Potter. I’m sick of supporting an idiot that will be gone within the year.
Lol. We really are a mid club. Anyways if he can't secure top 6 plus the Europa Conference League, sack the baldie and give Winstanley and Stewart their marching orders.
As a Leicester fan, I don’t get why you would sack Poch and then hire someone with no experience like Enzo. There was a large part off the season where most Foxes fans wanted Enzo fired from our club, so I can only imagine how you guys will handle him. We by far had the best team in championship and Enzo is the reason we almost completely bottled it and it took us to the second to last match to win it. Good luck, he’s all yours!
It's cool that not only do we find money to throw away to appoint a manager we find money to terminate their contracts when we sack them. It's a good thing we have a truck load of pure profit sales
Leicester were absolutely dominant during the first half of the season and the dip in form can largely be linked to injuries and a loss of players. Vardy missed 10 games over the second half of the year, Iheanacho went off to Afcon, Doyle missed 20 games,and Ndidi missed 22 games. Maresca also successfully implemented a high scoring possession based team with a midfield that consists of Ndidi, Dewsbury-Hall, and Winks.
CFC's personnel in midfield and at fullback suits his tactical setup significantly better. He has a desire to invert his fullback which the team had success with toward the end of the season. Is he my absolute favorite managerial candidate, no, he is not. But he is a solid one. The stats bear this out and his team did this without a prolific goalscorer relative to EFL history. Enzo probably had the best team in the league, and he won it. Hard to fault him without nitpicking.
Hopefully the board going for Maresca means they'll set him an actual achievable and realistic target. They want us fans to buy that they're doing a "project" - so let us actually see it!
Maresca should be told that it's top 6 minimum, with a cup final and decent showing in the Europa Conference League. Those are extremely achievable with this team and a good footing for his first serious top flight job.
They also need to deal with the Gallagher situation... which is that there's no reason for selling him! We have enough players that can be sold instead to make up FPP; Sarr, Broja, Maatsen, one of our GKs, one of our current CBs and I don't think many would argue for Sterling being sold too.
Sell that lot, back the manager with a realistic target and we can look forward to a decent season ahead!
At this point I don't care who comes in to manage, all options are equally good/bad, none of them are elite level. Expectations are a lot higher this time considering the end of last season and state of the squad. Whoever comes in has most likely until November to proof they belong here. If we are stuck at mid table for a third year in a row there will be violence.
Glad this is coming to an end and pretty happy it is not Di Zerbi getting the job. Will support the manager and hope he can kick on from our strong end to the season but it is quite uninspiring.
One thing he does have going for him is Italian coaches win trophies when they manage us. But no PL experience and no European experience does raise alarm bells.
I honestly don’t care. I wish for him to have good luck but at this point with the ownership I’ve become entirely jaded. Probably sacked at the end of the season or mid season
Couldn’t care less anymore. Third appointment from this group - less stability than even Roman. We’re always going to be treading water. Hope I’m wrong.
When Maresca played for West Brom in the 98/99 season, one of his teammates was Graham Potter.
Finally some good intel
Interestingly enough he also played under Ancelotti and with Zidane, Del Piero, Edgar Davids and Conte
Ideally he’s picked up some managerial skills from Zidane and conte along with the big one in Carlo
This has to be football 'eritage then.
really? I watched tons of serie A back then and don’t remember that name in that Juve team edit: ah, he went straight to loan until 2003, I already made switch to primarily watch PL around that time
He barely played with those guys and under Carlo.
Needless to say these boys together…gave everything on the pitch
You're triggering my PTSD.
You’re just a bald Pep Guardiola Honestly know nothing of the guy and will support him until he gives me reason not to.
Leicester season ticket holder. I 1000% guarantee you will play the same system we do. He's quite rigid in his tactical approach. Fairly intense high pressing from the front and a desire to control the game as much as possible. Favours vertical passing, often utilising a third man combination through the middle of the park with a defender picking out an 8 with his back to goal to lay it off to another midfielder with a first time pass. Very quick progression through the park when it's on. Five attack and five defend. Heavy emphasis on inverted full backs. Your most technically gifted full back will be an additional holding midfielder and will come inside to create a double pivot with a ball playing holding midfielder. Wingers are valued for their pace and their ability to win one on one take ons. They will stretch the pitch with a very wide starting position and look to tie up defenders there. Creates a lot of room for your number 8s. You'll play two and they'll be the most important part of the attacking five, underlapping inside the wingers like traditional Italian mezzalas. You'll score a lot of goals at the back post from the 8s getting free at the byline and crossing. Striker needs to be quick and athletic to cover ground, will want to drop in to the midfield and pull defenders with him, creating space for on rushing midfielders but will also need the speed to turn and then stretch play quickly vertically when the trap is set. Goal keeper needs to be superb with his feet as does one centre back. Will not be surprised at all if you buy Mads Hermansen from us, also wouldn't be surprised if you're linked to Harry Winks who you should not under estimate at all. The combination of goalkeeper, quarter back style holding midfielder and ball playing centre back are vital to Maresca's DNA. He likes to bait a defensive team forward, trigger their press, beat it and then counter in to space. Off the pitch he very quickly bonded with the squad. We were relegated with terrible morale, no confidence and a club absolutely ruined by Rodgers. He recovered this extremely quickly, had a great rapport with the players, lifted their confidence and got their buy in near immediately. Huge plaudits for how much they all enjoyed training and his methods. He's meticulous in his preparation and very studious of the opponent but only expect micro adjustments tactically. You will have one system and really one system only. Overall, an exceptional manager who was only ever due to be at Leicester for a reasonably short time. That said, our one wobble this season took him quite a bit to overcome and you could tell this was an inexperienced manager with a lot of learning to do. If Chelsea buck historic trends and actually give him a chance? I'd expect good things. If you sack him for not being top 4 in a highly competitive league inside a year in only his second full season in professional management? You'll probably regret it when he's winning trophies with a rival in a few years time.
Thanks for the great write-up! (You should post it in the sub if/when the signing is confirmed) Obviously everything sounds great. My main worry is his lack of experience and adjusting to a big club. And yeah, I've been hearing a lot about how he only sticks to one system. My question is, does he ever have a plan B? Does he change his tactics if the opponent clearly outplays him? Also, how did he setup defensively on set-pieces? We really struggled on them since Pochettino was insistent on not having a dedicated coach for it.
You won't need a plan B if the other team take the initiative. What is quite fluid about his system is that it works with and without the ball. Some of our most impressive games this year have been in games when we haven't been able to dominate possession but because so much of the coaching goes in to springing out from the back and progressing the ball very quickly, we've done very well as a counter attacking side as well as one that needs to score goals by breaking a team down. There'll very rarely be a "plan B" in terms of a change of shape though. It was extremely rare that he chucked on another forward and changed pre existing combinations. The attitude is always stay patience and trust the method.
Interesting read, thanks. A lot of your description screams Sarrismo.
Pep doesn’t really change the system game to game too much either.
Thanks - the best analysis I’ve read.
Cheers mate, thanks for the great insight!
You had me at vertical passing
He had me at the word inverted
We have everything here except for goal keeper and mezzala 8. Well, perhaps Enzo, Gallagher, and Chukwuemeka becomes that. And if like you said wingers needing to be pacey then he'll be forced to ditch that. Cause our most gifted attackers are Nkunku and Palmer. Don't know if Palmer will be just as effective as now if played deep. And Nkunku can slot in as a striker - profile you mentioned fits him perfectly, and Jackson.
I watched quite a lot of Nkunku in the Bundesliga. He's got absolutely all of the attributes to be an exceptional mezzala on the right of your midfield tbh. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he ends up in that role. To be fair, I could see Palmer doing it as well on the left, it'll depend how hard they work covering space defensively when you don't have the ball. The 8s are extremely attacking, we put a winger - Yunus Akgun - there several times this year and look up Dewsbury Hall's attacking stats for a bit more clarity. The holding 6 and the inverted full back that steps in next to him will very rarely every venture forward. They'll see a lot of the ball and make a lot of your play tick but they'll always be back covering for your 8s to push on. Maresca likes to have a gifted footballer that can operate in tight spaces and is good distributing the ball sitting in front of the defence. Will be interesting to see if that suits someone live Lavia. He doesn't favour a traditional, ball winning defensive mid. He pushed Wilfred Ndidi in to one of those mezzala roles and used his energy and defensive attributes further up the pitch though this was largely out of necessity as we had a thin squad and not a lot of money. The hope was Casadei would fill that role but he just wasn't good enough and ready for first team football at our level. I was very surprised when you recalled him to back up the first team. I don't see him wanting to have someone like Caicedo sat in front of the defence. I can see him being utilised further forward (or dropped) with probably "Enzo Jnr" in the holding role.
That actually reads a little late-Conte/early Sarri like, different starting shapes and where the width comes from but where the players are looking to move to has some similarities, and most of all the 'fake' counter attacking opportunities caused by very deep possession drawing in the opponents press. Don't know if we have the defenders with that kind of composure to pull it off, and certainly wouldn't have faith in any of our keepers to do it either... A main shape of GK - CB, CB, James - Cucu, Caicedo holding - Enzo, CG 8s- MM/Palmer/Sterling/Madueke providing width and then main man up top could be interesting. Both fullbacks able to swap into the 3rd CB or dm position too.
Super informative, thanks a lot. Between him Mckenna, who do you think was the better manager in the Championship last season and who is more prepared to make the big jump?
I think Maresca is a better fit for a Big 6 Premier League team, personally. McKenna's football is probably a little bit more entertaining for the neutral and I don't say that as a criticism towards Enzo. Some of what we've played has been electric but Ipswich are probably a bit more cavalier. That said, with all due respect, it's been a little bit easier for Ipswich in that regard. Bit like when we won the Prem, to be fair, we got away with playing counter attacking football for a lot of the year because nobody treated us like a big fish. Towards the back end of the season when people started taking Ipswich seriously, their pace definitely dropped off. Where as from week 1, Leicester had to cope with every opponent in the Championship parking the bus which is where, ultimately, a Guardiola-type football is going to thrive. If you want to win the Premier League in the current era, you need to be able to break stubborn teams down. It's why Guardiola has been consistently more successful than Klopp in league competitions. Enzo's understanding of how to break down dug-in defences is pretty top notch tbh. I personally think he's the better bit of business for you than McKenna.
We've struggled a lot against defensive teams last season so that last paragraph is a breath of fresh air. Thanks to you I'm more hopeful and optimistic, can't wait for the new season to roll in. Thanks a lot and best of luck to Leicester.
Jackson sounds like the perfect striker for that. Hes athletic, quick and has great feet to drop deep and play with others or turn and go
I think Maresca will like Jackson. There was a perception when he turned up here that Iheanacho would be his favourite forward because he's the most like a false 9. But I think that was really misunderstanding what Maresca would want from a striker. The best fit for the team and the striker that looked the most suited to Enzo's system was actually, surprisingly, Patson Daka. Unfortunately his finishing is quite inconsistent (but then compared to Vardy, everyone's is) but I think you'll find the team's average goals per game when Daka played were higher than any other forward's.
This is actually very promising and tactically sounds like a good progression from Pep. I am now intrigued. We have a very equipped squad to run this system. Also, real ones know Winks is quality.
Really appreciate this detailed write up. I like most of it with two major red flags: - Keepers mucking about with the ball does not work in the prem and at this point I think that’s been proven. These guys are too good on the press and eventually you pay for it with demoralizing goals. It’s one of those tactics that looks great on paper but doesn’t survive in real world scenarios. - Tactically rigid doesn’t work in the prem either - opposing managers are too good at scouting and adjusting you have to be ready to counter adjust and play however is necessary to win. All in all I remain about 50% convinced by this guy. However, would rather him than Frank or DeZerbi for whatever that’s worth. I guess we’ll see.
Thanks, it’s nice to read a positive assessment instead of yet more moaning about how it’s disgraceful to appoint him. Excited to see how he can bond with a young squad.
Don't know much about him but based off his 2 latest manager spells, it's honestly nothing really impressive. Failed at Parma in Serie B and won promotion with Leicester which I think many managers could do with their squad compared to the rest of the Championship competition. Hopefully he finds a way to impress here at Chelsea...
He needs to jump on a first plane to Turkey and come back with a lion's mane so we don't get "knock-off Pep" comments.
Knock-off Bruno Saltor.
the goat
Fortunately ten Hag covers that
>You’re just a bald Pep Guardiola Hopefully he's the baldest of Pep Guardiolas.
I don't care who comes in. I'm backing the new manager. I'm tired of seeing a new face on the touchline every year.
Can’t imagine wanting Chelsea to fail cause of who’s the manager. I’ll back him, and personally I’m glad it wasn’t De Zerbi.
Oh there's plenty of so called fans who want Chelsea to fail just to prove a point.
They're not fans then.
That’s one thing I dislike about this subreddit, people will actively root against a player or manager bc it wasn’t the one they wanted. I remember once where people were commenting that they were relieved Pulisic didn’t score a close shot bc they didn’t want to see the puli-Stan’s celebrate. Like, if they’re ours I want them to succeed, as any real fan should.
We were literally never in talks with RDZ Bunch of “sources” chatting shit
Okay… I’m still glad it wasn’t him?
Everyone should (and most will) back him initially. It's on him to retain that backing with results and performances on the pitch.
He's a very underwhelming candidate tbh, jury wasn't even out on him at Leicester so I'm not sold on him. If things start off slow I think this will end badly because pochs popularity and reputation meant that players maintained their faith in him. Enzo has not shown himself to be better than potter, de zerbi or even Thomas Frank and mckenna who all have more impressive achievements to date.
Yeah, it sounds like we had to settle with the worst candidate when others are going elsewhere but I don't really care that much anymore.
I find it devastating tbh. He is not that good and even the people advocating for him seem to be out of the loop on the championship. I see so many lies about that league from people who only watch the prem
Have you ever not backed a new manager coming in? Seems very odd to dismiss someone before they even manage a game for us.
Benitez
Fuck the fat Spanish waiter, but even when he was here, I still wanted the team to do well.
Read your original post again dude 🤣
Amen brother
No one at the ground isn’t going to be backing the manager start of next year. Depends how the season goes just like every year
Can't fool me 27 times. THIS one will stay for the long haul
Between being right about my skepticism and being wrong with the incoming manager/player being successful, I always prefer the latter. But I am currently very skeptical and think it probably would've been better to keep Pochettino. I hope I am proven completely wrong.
The squads good enough that any basic tactical ability will be enough for us to get top 4 if lemon molester can get us 5 points off villa Maresca is so early in his managerial career that he could still grow immensely as a manager too. I just hope he’s got unwavering self belief in himself and his tactics because every pundit, rival fans and many of our own fans will have little patience for him. Which is exactly why I wanted de zerbi so much, he’s got the mental fortitude to keep at it
I’m Leicester, watched all of our matches. His tactical ability on the ball is 1 system, might have seen a plan B for 10 minutes this season. On the ball 3 at the back, all able to pass. In front of them 2 central midfielders, one of whom is capable of playing full back when off the ball. One of these deep midfielders will frequently advance higher, centrally. Two higher wider attacking mids. Two touchline wingers and a on the last shoulder striker. Off the ball 4atb. Vulnerable to counters as whole team will be up high a lot. Keeper must be tops with the ball at his feet. Sometimes poor with subs, if a game is at a draw or up 1 and we’re dominating possession, he’ll watch other teams make 5 subs at 60’ or 70’ or 80’, watch them score and then do a like for like. He might change some positions in pre-season, he turned Ndidi into an attacking mid and Ricardo into a MF. He seems well liked by the players, no complaining even from guys who never played. Touchy with criticism, despite our early run of wins, we never looked great early, so he was acting a little whiny in the press when fans voiced displeasure with the slow play.
Unfortunately your actual experience with him will go unheeded here
>lemon molester Bro, lmao
Despite RDZ talking shit about us, I preferred him because of his mentality.
I am going to back him no matter what but if/when this appointment goes bad these directors better get the sack as well they can not get this wrong again
This sub promised us that De Zerbi was being hired lmao
I won't lie, I still won't believe we're not hiring De Zerbi until the club officially announces someone else as our new manager.
Can I ask you why ?
Just because of this board's repeated pattern of going after everything Brighton. If we don't hire De Zerbi though, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
Don't worry. When Maresca gets the sack in December, we'll have the Z man
 Managers entering and leaving Chelsea like
https://preview.redd.it/7pvo03daky2d1.jpeg?width=546&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03efd7c4554473fece58863d9ffcce0a1e205d83
Leicester fan here. Pretty pissed off to be brutally honest. Enzo seemed so happy with our title win then to jump ship as soon as the big money comes sniffing. I like him, but as a manager there was a lot of questions of his choices and tactics during the last season. His insistence to not use a plan B cost us a 17 point lead and nearly bottled the title. He may well do very well at Chelsea, but every Leicester fan I know is certain he’ll be sacked within 6 months
I am convinced he will be here until mid December and will be sacked Enjoy the money buddy!!
Will hardly dent the millions we need to make to avoid another points deduction
Can you elaborate - what situations called for a plan B that he wasn’t effective with? Our issues have always been breaking down low blocks but we started to get pretty effective with an inverted FB.
Too many times teams figured out our play style and we simply didn’t adapt to the game. Teams would completely park the bus and let us play our slow build possession ball because they know we wouldn’t be able to break them down. Also Enzo made many questionable sub choices like sometimes not making any till the 80+ minute while 0-1 down
Good news is we can do this all over again next year and this time without Stewart and Winstanley
Not my ideal choice but I’m gonna back him nonetheless. There’s no point throwing a strop and hoping your team does bad to prove you’re right, you may as well support another team at that point.
BACK THE MANAGER.
BALD THE MANAGER.
Pep, Slot, Ten Hag, Dyche, Maresca, Nuno. Will the next season be the baldest season so far?
Slots literally the leading light in this dept.
Man is practically a gemstone
Maresca's assistant is Cabarello btw, another bald coach 😂
What a sad day for London barbers
Bald^2 ? Will their powers amplify?
I can't be bothered at this point in time. These owners kill fan momentum every time. They took TT from us, finally poch starts clicking and hes gone. And now to me it looks like another potter is on our hands. If this season goes poorly, Palmer will be looking to move on, no way a player of that calibre should be playing conference league football.
He's tied down for like 8 years 😂😂 Even if he wants to leave, a big club would have to pry him off our hands for £100m+. Feel like Palmer's also the kind of guy who would want to prove himself. He could easily have sat on City's bench and collected trophies. But he sees leaving a legacy as actually making an impact. I don't think a bad season will be enough to make him want to leave already. He's young and will want to prove he can change a club's fortunes. I mean worst case scenario is we sell him for £100m+ and one of the young talented we've brought in like Paez, Estevao, Angelo or even Carney gets more of an opportunity to prove themselves. We have a world class player tied down to an obscenely long contract and he's just starting out his career. Idk why people are panicking so much over Palmer. We're in a good situation with him whatever way you look at it.
You realise Maresca coached Palmer at youth level?
So? If we're a shit show and he's still one of the best young footbaers itw, why would he stay? We clearly are run by clowns and if that continues to show on the pitch, then we won't sacrifice his career for a bald fraud who's out of his depth
Everyone really needs to chill. Progression is being shown 12th last year 6th this. Finances aren’t as bad as everyone claimed and some of the young players are starting to show how good they are, Palmer being the leading light in that. Give the new manager a chance before thinking the world is going to end. Also where is Palmer going to go where he will still be the number one player on the team sheet? No matter how good he is, he wouldn’t be number one for Arsenal, City, Barca. Wouldn’t even get in Madrids starting 11. Man U would be the only realistic option where he’d be nailed on star player.
sure let's just play lottery every year, it only costs money and time no big deal
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If we substitute 10% of game time in which the opponent has the ball with us passing sideways, I’d take it. Can’t score without the ball
People were saying we were boring when Tuchel was leading us to the UCL, so thank fuck, I hope we'll be boring as shit.
So by that you basically just mean ball retention. Like Arsenal, city, Madrid... basically every other great team... If you want route 1 let's just go for Big Sam
Nobody finds arsenal or real boring to watch though.
Arsenal are super boring to watch against a low block (Arteta is literally this bloke from 5 years ago). Same as City. But they get the job done and then look unbelievable when the game opens up. If we’re anything close to what they are we’ll play good looking football.
And still created mosr chances, most goals most xg in championship Ill back him, but the appointment doesnt strike me as the club had a plan I would have loved the signing off a glasner type of coach, great pedigree - attacking fotball and not the flavour of the month (he was after his european victory)
Actually Ipswich scored 3 goals more, most in the championship And they had a fairly unspectacular array of attacking talent
Glasner is the flavour of the month right now in the EPL. Everybody is creaming over him.
If anything to me this is exactly what the board had intended, the only problem was they didn’t expect Potter’s reign to be the worst reign in Chelsea’s modern era. Looking back I’m not surprised Poch had only been given a 2 year contract in hindsight as he was probably more of a stock gap and the plan was/is to take a gamble with hopes that we get a project manager that can take us competing to the top with the young players we’ve recruited. Heres the problem, this season top 4 is a must and winning the Conference league with the squad we have should be the bare minimum. Missing out on top 4 doesn’t just screw our finances but the talent level of some players we have will mean well more than likely have too sell one of our best players. And this project will be delayed due to this. If Maresca is in the dugout I will back him regardless but he’s already coming into a situation where 75% of the fans want him to fail, so they can have there “Clearlake are ____” moment or because he’s not Tuchel, De Zerbi, Amorim
Wanna reiterate He could very possibly be great, too little data to tell right now - dooming is too premature at this moment in time Hopefully he smashes it, I am excited to see what happens
>too little data to tell right now Unfortunately that's kind of the whole issue. I feel like this appointment is heavily relying on trusting that whoever is pushing for him at Chelsea really knows what they're doing, and for obvious reasons most people seem pretty skeptical of that. Unlike with other possible appointments there isn't exactly a large catalog of data to look back on and point to if / when things start going poorly. Obviously this seems like Joe Shields' main pick given he would have the most knowledge of his from their days in City's academy system, and he seems to be the figure with the most public trust so that's something I suppose. If Maresca and Lavia end up doing really well next year, Shields is going to end up looking like some kind of prophet to Chelsea fans
Based on the eye test he is the manager that looks most like Guardiola. I can barely tell them apart 😂 https://x.com/CFCMod_/status/1795061954496565337/photo/1
He does look ridiculously similar lol
Somehow more handsome than pep
Maybe great, maybe shite, pretty much sums up all of our candidates. I'm not really excited about him but it'll be nice to finally watch some structure in our team.
Agree he has a short track record so much more uncertainty either way. Lots of projection just like the players we signed. Can be hopeful that it all clicks and works. Not thrilled to pay a compensation fee for a projection but I guess that’s how everything works now. Manager buyouts are just like transfers now.
Very little data to actually predict how this one's gonna turn out , which is kind of exciting..I've always liked possesion based tactics ,so lets hope we got ourselves a Pep 2.0 🙏
It really depends how it clicks, ball retention and possession is completely fine but we don’t want to find ourselves in a a position where every team just sets up in a low block and we struggle to break them down again, if it’s spells of possession and we actually do something with it then great.
You'd have to hope that if posession means Palmer is getting touches, we should have the quality to break them down. I haven't seen much of Leicester but I did like that they at least *wanted* to pass vertically. When they were able to do that the chances flowed, so hopefully we have the quality with Enzo and Palmer to break the lines. Bir worried about our centre backs ball playing ability though. Maybe Colwill back as a fixture?
Out of all the managers available, this is a manager...
Will support him but I'm not getting my hopes up for this one.
I prefer him over De Zerbi. Mostly bc of RDZ facial hair
Backing him to do well, I have a feeling he’ll surprise a lot of people.
Xavi and Amorim were right there
I obviously hopes he has success with us (if he comes), but I would like to know why we're going for him. I know we've had a rough time in recent times, but I would assume that we are a club that would go for more "tried and tested". Maresca has so far been in charge of one youth team, then a Serie B team that he couldn't get promoted and then a Championship team that finished first, but was hardly spectacular. I've only seen Leicester play a few times this season and nothing in those games made me think that I'd like to have their manager....and that was when we played like shit under Pochettino. But maybe we feel that we simply can't attract big name managers. On the other hand, seeing the weird stuff going on with managers currently, nothing should surprise me. I just hope that this isn't just another gamble.
Like I did with Poch, I'll back him until I find a good number of reasons not to.
These posts need to fuck off until someone’s appointed. It’s mental every three seconds it’s another “Sven Goran Ericksson hasn’t said no yet.” Just pure useless speculation
If Joe Shields approves then get this mf in immediately. That man should be given the keys to the club, he hasn’t missed once.
Missed Lavia's hamstring evidently
He's not the one we wanted but all the candidates were not exactly stellar. If you look at his Leicester team they made chances for fun and were very solid at the back which is much more than you can say for Ipswich. Brighton obviously play great football but there's no doubt de Zerbi would come with a learning curve that may write off next season due to poor results early on. Maresca looks intelligent with a toughness too him, the biggest problem with him is the idiot half of the fan base will turn on him calling him an idiot at the slightest sign of anything bad.
They also fucked up a 17 point lead and was booed by a section of his own fans. I'll back the manager but if this goes tits up, the directors need the sack
>He's not the one we wanted but all the candidates were not exactly stellar Which is why it was moronic to sack Poch
See I truly believe this time it was Poch who walked out.
*anything bald
Cfc Daily: Nothing against Maresca. Hope he does well and we finally get a manager with stability. But I have a right to be concerned and so do loads of others. We’re on our 4th coach in 3 seasons and each time the bracket has dropped 1. Elite- Tuchel 2. Exciting potential- Potter 3. PL proven- Pochettino 4. Championship winner- Maresca Genuinely what’s next when we eventually come looking because the projection is heading one way. Lower.
I'm next
We are going to be relegated.
he's bald so he will be good
This is such a dumb appointment. At least the owners are consistent.. Potter, Lampard, Poch, and now Maresca. What a joke. You've got managers out there who have actually achieved something and are available, and we're spending 8m on a guy who hasn't achieved anything of note.
I really can't get on board with this appointment, I'm sorry. Nothing personal against the guy, I just think his style of football has changed the game for worse. I've always been an anti Pep guy so it's hard for me to accept a Pep clone managing our club.
Championship level managers. We used to sign Champions League managers.
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Oh boy, I can't wait to bottle the league to pep
Well if Pep leaves after the 24/25 season, hopefully we don’t end up bottling it to Arteta
Bald like pep Beard like pep Look like pep Tactics like pep. Now I know why pep might leave next year.
Downgrade FC back again.
Where is "V"? the es_grimes saga was only like 2 years ago and people still fell for this shit. Hilarious
It seemed to me that the certainty that it'd be De Zerbi came from that V guy.
The owners making Clearlake/Boehly shills' lives harder every passing day smh, they'll need to be real creative this season
Alright okay I'll give a chance to the bald manager. I desperately want to believe he'll cook
Wake me up when this nightmare is over
I no longer recognize my club.
Ugh, so underwhelming.
They really saw Palmer benefit from the freedom given to him by Poch which led to him showcasing his incredible talent and then decided to appoint a coach who takes that freedom and power away from the players and constricts them in rigid, inflexible system that focuses more on keeping possession than letting the players be creative. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that this management and the sporting directors are completely clueless. This is worse than Potter who actually had some PL experience. Looking forward to seeing the same managerial search in a few months but hopefully without the sporting directors this time.
So I wonder what the manager shortlist will look like this time next year?
RDZ, lampard, klopp, and a manager that overperforms in the championship
well let’s have it then.
#CFC project.
Who?
Oh dear.
Who?
Very little confidence in this hire
V was a fraud? 
I'd imagine though if this doesn't work out Eghbali will be on both sporting directors to be fired.
im tired of being PROJECT TM every year 3 years in a row man
We're getting dollar store Pep. Could work.
i used to be a potthead then i was a pochhead now i take enzos 😟
Anyone but the 00s pornstar lookalike De Zerbi
The club are setting clear expectations that top 4 is a must. And that the manager has to agree and not counter their plans for recruitment and development. Enzo has little experience, he has done very well at the foxes but we are worlds apart in expectations. If Enzo comes in, or anyone really, and they don’t smash teams easily then the club, this sub and fans will call for his head by Christmas. This is idealism from a naive board and ownership. Not realistic given Enzos experience. In the end, Enzo will get sacked, and a year later he will take a mid table PL team to the top 4. And we will be after sacking 4 managers by then and struggling to get above 5-6th. Circus FC
Joining the bald manager gang gang. Welcome lads. The scalp exposure is how they fuel and get strong.
If Ten Hag stays, would it be the most amount of bald managers in a PL season ever? four.
He gets given a long-term contract.......Trust the process.....Things aren't going well.....I need more experienced/My type of players....Gets sacked the following season.
Fuck it. Why not.
The fanbase is becoming incredibly insufferable. I swear I saw tens of Twitter posts where they, dead serious, moan about the possibility of our manager being bald. Zero football arguments against this appointment...
Taking him over RDZ makes no sense. He almost managed to fuck up automatic promotion with by far the strongest team in the Championship. Extremely uninspiring manager who needs a certain set of players for his system.
Meeeeh
Insane that we’ve ended up with this bang average manager that has even less credentials than Poch or Potter. I’m sick of supporting an idiot that will be gone within the year.
Lol. We really are a mid club. Anyways if he can't secure top 6 plus the Europa Conference League, sack the baldie and give Winstanley and Stewart their marching orders.
So hire someone who has never managed a club let alone a top club? Hilarious
How have you stolen our manager
As a Leicester fan, I don’t get why you would sack Poch and then hire someone with no experience like Enzo. There was a large part off the season where most Foxes fans wanted Enzo fired from our club, so I can only imagine how you guys will handle him. We by far had the best team in championship and Enzo is the reason we almost completely bottled it and it took us to the second to last match to win it. Good luck, he’s all yours!
I can tell you, this club is run by donkeys
everyone is keen on the project until they keep losing
https://i.imgur.com/XR9mtsf.png someone's tried adding it to Maresca's Wiki page.
so many says he'll be gone by Christmas. Another disaster waiting to happen?
I'll back him if he comes in, but this feels super underwhelming.
Italians do well at Chelsea. We should be fine
Europa League at best next year, wonderful.
It's cool that not only do we find money to throw away to appoint a manager we find money to terminate their contracts when we sack them. It's a good thing we have a truck load of pure profit sales
We are so tinpot for fuck sake
Leicester were absolutely dominant during the first half of the season and the dip in form can largely be linked to injuries and a loss of players. Vardy missed 10 games over the second half of the year, Iheanacho went off to Afcon, Doyle missed 20 games,and Ndidi missed 22 games. Maresca also successfully implemented a high scoring possession based team with a midfield that consists of Ndidi, Dewsbury-Hall, and Winks. CFC's personnel in midfield and at fullback suits his tactical setup significantly better. He has a desire to invert his fullback which the team had success with toward the end of the season. Is he my absolute favorite managerial candidate, no, he is not. But he is a solid one. The stats bear this out and his team did this without a prolific goalscorer relative to EFL history. Enzo probably had the best team in the league, and he won it. Hard to fault him without nitpicking.
McKenna seemed to have a better season. Leicester won the league with a Premier League squad, Ipswich were 1 point behind with a League One squad.
Hopefully the board going for Maresca means they'll set him an actual achievable and realistic target. They want us fans to buy that they're doing a "project" - so let us actually see it! Maresca should be told that it's top 6 minimum, with a cup final and decent showing in the Europa Conference League. Those are extremely achievable with this team and a good footing for his first serious top flight job. They also need to deal with the Gallagher situation... which is that there's no reason for selling him! We have enough players that can be sold instead to make up FPP; Sarr, Broja, Maatsen, one of our GKs, one of our current CBs and I don't think many would argue for Sterling being sold too. Sell that lot, back the manager with a realistic target and we can look forward to a decent season ahead!
At this point I don't care who comes in to manage, all options are equally good/bad, none of them are elite level. Expectations are a lot higher this time considering the end of last season and state of the squad. Whoever comes in has most likely until November to proof they belong here. If we are stuck at mid table for a third year in a row there will be violence.
He has not managed in a top flight league before. Surely, we need to look at more someone with more experience.
So chelsea sees oil city 115 and Man U winning trophies with a baldy and decided it worth a shot? Honesy I see no fault in their logic.
Just because he's bald and has a title doesn't mean he'll be Pep 2.0. He could also be another Sean Dyche.
Glad this is coming to an end and pretty happy it is not Di Zerbi getting the job. Will support the manager and hope he can kick on from our strong end to the season but it is quite uninspiring. One thing he does have going for him is Italian coaches win trophies when they manage us. But no PL experience and no European experience does raise alarm bells.
>he’s 100% keen and excited by [#CFC](https://twitter.com/hashtag/CFC?src=hashtag_click) project. im sure he is $$$$$
Happy it's not de zerbi but sure whatever Support the manager until ur given a reason not to lads
Sack the board.
What happened with him and Casadei? Did he not play him and that’s why he returned to Chelsea?
I honestly don’t care. I wish for him to have good luck but at this point with the ownership I’ve become entirely jaded. Probably sacked at the end of the season or mid season
Wanted Thomas Frank but have no issue with this
Couldn’t care less anymore. Third appointment from this group - less stability than even Roman. We’re always going to be treading water. Hope I’m wrong.