Enzo Maresca has done a good job. It's time to back him

Foundations have been laid

It’s been a very positive season for Chelsea. Top 4 finish, 69 points, 3rd best defence in the PL and now winning the Conference League, the first trophy for this group of players, for Enzo Maresca and the Clearlake/Boehly ownership.

Head Coach Enzo Maresca has come under fire a lot this season, including from me at times. And lets be clear, at times the criticism has been deserved. There’s no problem from me in people criticising Maresca because he has made mistakes, he’s made some problematic public comments at times. I’m always about giving praise when its due, and fair, respectful criticism when its deserved, and I’ve done both with Maresca this season, and have no problem with others criticising him fairly.

Its the agenda merchants who hated Maresca from day one, wanted him out whatever he achieved and have even got annoyed he’s succeeded, who I really have no time or respect for.

But ultimately he’s had the last laugh. He’s helped us complete the set of European trophies and ensured the club has Champions League football next season. And I believe he’s laid some strong foundations for the future.

First, the overall results/stats under Maresca:

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All comps:

57 games

35 wins

13 defeats

9 draws

Premier League:

38 games

20 wins

9 defeats

9 draws

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Enzo Maresca has a 61% win percentage in all competitions. In the Premier League, he has a healthy 52% win percentage.

These two figures, all comps and PL, are both higher than his two immediate predecessors Mauricio Pochettino (50% and 48% respectively) and Graham Potter (36% and 31.8%).

Maresca’s points per game in the PL is 1.81, again, better than both his predecessors. Indeed his points per game is similar to the likes of Claudio Ranieri and Roberto Di Matteo and higher than Frank Lampard in his first spell.

Given the squad he had is likely not yet at the level the squads Claudio and Di Matteo had, and that he has the youngest squad in PL history, this is a solid achievement. You’d expect all these stats to at least marginally improve next season with a stronger squad, certainly in the Premier League.

Bu there's some myths about Enzo Maresca’s performance this season which have grown up and need to be exposed. The first is that we were worse in the second half of the season. When you look at the actual points from the first 19 PL games of the season and the last 19, they’re incredibly close.

Aug-Dec 30th (19 games)

4th in form table - 35 pts

W10 L4 D4

Since Jan 1st (19 games):

Joint 4th in form table - 34 pts

W10 L5 D4

We actually lost almost the same amount of games in the first half of the season as in the second. The difference is, in the first half of the season the defeats were fairly well spread out, in the second half of the season we lost 4 in 7 between Jan 25th-Mar 16th, but only one more in the 9 games after this, the Newcastle away game. Our record in those 9 games was W6 D2 L1.

The football wasn’t as spectacular in the second half of the season but we still got the results. Maresca had to adapt to teams setting up low blocks against us much more, player injuries and loss of form, and a lack of depth in the squad, and judging from our form in the last 12 PL games, its fair to say he did adapt well.

From the 4-0 Southampton win in February to the end of the season - 12 PL games - we were actually TOP of the form table. We kept 7 clean sheets and only conceded 7 goals, beating Liverpool, Man Utd, Nottingham Forest, with one of the toughest run ins of all the teams competing for the top 5.

Another myth has been the idea Maresca never changed or adapted tactically, when he did as much as any Chelsea manager. In the run in, Maresca often set us up differently, focussing on solid defence, with the goal of keeping the opposition out, controlling the game, and then going more aggressive in the second half - different from his usual philosophy - and it worked.

He was willing to let us have less possession than normal in some games, especially against low blocks, in order to achieve the result, and this led to us getting 1-0 wins against Everton, Man Utd, Nottingham Forest and Spurs. We limited most teams to 2-3 shots on target per game. Everton didn’t have a single shot against us for 65 minutes when we played them, Man Utd only had 1 shot on target against us the other week, and Nottingham Forest only had 2 shots on target in our final league game.

What’s fascinating is we conceded 36 PL goals in the first 26 PL games, but only 7 in the following 12 games, to the end of the season. This actually coincided with Wesley Fofana’s second and current injury absence. Had you taken the last 12 games defence average over a 38 game league season, we’d only have conceded around 22 goals all season in the league, which is a phenomenal stat. Indeed, we’ve only conceded 12 goals in our last 19 games in all competitions, so this defensive improvement has been very consistent.

The end result of this defensive improvement, was that we ended the season with the third best defence in the league. That’s a clear sign of progression and positive development over a season, both tactically and structurally. We saw in fact how Levi Colwill improved over the season, to the point he’s now our clear first choice CB, and that’s reflected in the defensive stats.

I’d argue that we conceded way too many goals and points mainly due to GK errors than we should have in the first two thirds of the season, which means our defence could well have been better with a top GK in goal. This is something out of Maresca’s control, as neither Sanchez or Jorgensen proved up to the long term job in goal.

In terms of possession, we were third in the PL, only Liverpool, the champions, and Manchester City, who finished 3rd, had higher possession stats this season. Chelsea were second in big chances created in the PL with 93, only behind Liverpool on 112. City and Arsenal were both close behind us.

However, both City and Liverpool of course have clinical goalscorers throughout their teams, whereas we really only had Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke as significant PL goalscorers, and not one player got 20 goals.

But it’s not all about possession. We’ve also, as Maresca himself said last night, learned to win ugly.

Last night he said:

“We also started to win games in an ugly way. That is something with a young squad that you struggle to do that, but I think, for instance, in the Nottingham Forest game we won in a little bit of an ugly way. We found the way to win the game, that was very, very important.”

He is right too, not just the Forest game, but a few games in recent weeks we’ve had to grind out results simply by being compact, organised, controlling the game with or without possession and taking our opportunities. There’s been a lot of 1-0 wins, 7 in our last 19 games in all competitions, and some of them with less possession than our opponents. At the same time, we’ve also continued to win games where we’ve had more possession, like the Conference Final itself where we had 66% possession and won 4-1. This ability to adapt to opponents and find different ways to win, as Maresca alluded to, is an important quality to have in any top team. And its important Maresca recognises getting the result is the most important thing, not sticking to a philosophy.

I’ve said all season, and the data shows it, had we had a proper GK and more goalscorers, including a proper goalscoring 9, we may even have taken the title race close to the end of the season and finished clear in 2nd. With the same coach, same football philosophy, same tactics, and most of the same personnel. Which to me, is pretty incredible.

I’m certain the disastrous summer window last year - and indeed in January - stopped us achieving even more this season than we actually did. That we got 4th, 69 points, the 2nd highest big chances created and 3rd best defence in the league, and won a trophy anyway, is a huge credit to Maresca and his players.

The other myth is every time we’ve played well its because they’ve “ignored Maresca”, which to me is a laughable non-argument. In actual fact, its usually that Maresca makes a tactical change and/or substitution which changes the game, and also, it’s credit to his half time team talks how often we’ve improved second half.

The idea the whole squad decide collectively to reject his tactics, is, frankly, laughable, especially given how much they clearly love him, as the celebrations last night showed.

Reece James made a point to celebrate with Maresca and went to the fans with him, as you can see in the photo above and in several videos of the celebrations. We’ve all seen them, and Maresca was a full part of the celebrations. Its clear the players are behind him - if they weren’t I don’t think we achieve what we have this season, to be honest.

I’d also say that Maresca has improved a lot of the players too. I’ve seen clear improvement in Levi Colwill, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella, Tosin Adarabioyo, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Noni Madueke, and even in Nicolas Jackson’s overall play.

That doesn’t happen when players don’t respect the coach, the improvement in these players is not only testament to Maresca’s coaching, but also the respect the players have for him.

Robert Sanchez ended the season almost a different player than he was up to February or March. He’s also successfully got Reece James fully back involved and playing regularly, managing his minutes very well and not rushing him back to playing Right-Back until he was really ready. Enzo Fernandez has had 21 goal contributions and his best season at Chelsea, Moises Caicedo went up a level from last season. Its clear Maresca’s coaching has had a positive impact.

One big thing I really want to say about Enzo Maresca though is how probably more than any manager outside Frank Lampard, how much belief he’s shown in the academy this season.

He’s given more debuts to academy players in a single season than any Chelsea manager in history. Which is an amazing stat and a huge credit to Maresca. All of us want to see Cobham players get opportunities and Maresca has actually done it.

The likes of Josh Acheampong and Tyrique George have really established themselves in the first team squad this season, even playing in a European semi final. This proves to me how committed Maresca is to the long term at Chelsea and being willing to play academy kids in a European semi final proves without doubt how much he believes in them, and all of them got winners medals from the Conference League win.

As a fan who loves Cobham and seeing our academy boys come through and get opportunities, this makes me really happy, and Maresca deserves full credit for this.

An area where Maresca fell down a lot earlier in the season was his media management. He made some very frustrating comments at times and really annoyed me TBH. However, Maresca’s media management has improved dramatically over the season, even from back in April.

In the last month or so he’s really built up a siege mentality, and above all he’s talked like a Chelsea manager. He’s spoken a lot about winning being important, about building a winning mentality, how important it is to win trophies and the expectations we have, which is a big improvement from some of his comments earlier in the season and a sign he’s learning what’s expected and what Chelsea fans demand from their manager.

He’s made an effort to connect with fans at games, home and away, going to fans after games and apart from one horrendous comment after the Ipswich game and a couple of other gaffes, being positive and encouraging to the fans.

We need to remember Maresca is still an inexperienced manager, especially at this level, so some mistakes and a learning curve was to be expected. I believe his mistakes overall have often been down to simple inexperience, and to me he’s shown in the last 6 weeks or so media wise, and the last 3 months tactics wise, he’s learning from those mistakes relatively quickly.

In the Conference League final he probably picked the wrong lineup from the start, but he made changes at half time and got the right team on the pitch, and we won the game. He didn’t stick stubbornly with his line up, he saw the problem, and acted to fix it, and it worked.

I genuinely think he will only get better as a coach and manager. He’s clearly able to manage upwards and capable of maintaining good relationships with those above him, which isn’t easy given who we have in those positions. They’re actually listening to him on recruitment too, as we’re seeing with Liam Delap, which is another positive. And, of course, he’s now won a major trophy, which is a crucial quality to have for any Chelsea manager and he’s done it in his first season.

I think over the year, he’s come to understand what it means to manage Chelsea and what it takes to succeed here, and I think we’ve seen that more in the last month or two.

I’m really glad and very relieved we’re not going to go through the usual managerial merry-go-round this summer and will finally have some stability at the club. Its something the club hasn’t had for years, and after 3 years of change, it looks like we might finally have it.

The footballing and coaching structure, not to mention the commercial and business structure, is now firmly in place through the club and we have stability in those positions, which will help with recruitment and with the team's development. Stability is what helps bring success in modern football and young players especially benefit from it, and to have some stability at the club to allow us to focus solely on recruitment and getting it done quickly this summer, is very welcome.

I believe Chelsea are in a good position now. Foundations have been laid with this team and they've now achieved something together, both in terms of Champions League qualification and winning their first major trophy as a group, and as individuals for many of them.

The spirit in the squad and at the club, appears to be very good. If we can get the summer recruitment right, I think next season we can take another step forward to getting back where this club should be - competing for the top prizes domestically and in Europe, and Enzo Maresca will have played a key part in this.

Yes, Maresca is relatively inexperienced and still has things to learn, but I’ve seen enough this season to believe he’s smart enough to learn quickly, and is capable of delivering even more success to Chelsea. He achieved his targets, and he’s won a trophy, and I think this is only the beginning.

I’m now all in on Enzo Maresca, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds under his leadership.

The Score