Enzo Maresca needs to step up - The football's been poor for a while

Its literally sending matchgoing fans to sleep

There’s been a lot of criticism of our head coach Enzo Maresca in the last few weeks. Complaints about the style of football, being bland, predictable and boring. Some have even called him “Bald Fraud” and “Mini Pep”.

Those latter insults feel a bit petty and too personal for my taste. But, I’ll be honest, as regards the other criticism of Maresca and his style of play, I find it difficult to disagree. I’m not remotely enjoying our football right now and Maresca essentially saying to fans “this is our style, deal with it” isn’t exactly endearing to me either.

I like Maresca. He’s clearly a decent coach, and respected by the players. I like his personality, he’s made an effort to connect with the fans, and we’re 9 points better off than this time last season. He’s got a bit of personality too. I’d be happy for him to stay if he achieves Champions League football this season, I’m really not wanting another managerial change.

Up to Christmas, we were superb under him. I really enjoyed watching us play, and he does deserve some credit for that, even though it was at least partially influenced by his predecessor.

But since then its tailed off, and the last month especially has been really poor. I’ve even had friends who’ve been to Chelsea games recently telling me they’re literally falling asleep watching the games, or choosing to watch other games on their phones as they’re so bored. That’s not good at all

It’s reminiscent of some of the football we saw under Maurizio Sarri in the 2018/19 season. I’ve actually seen people on socials saying its worse. Recently, its become slow, slow, sideways backwards passing which goes nowhere with no pace, no plan B, predictable and lethargic football, and I can tell you now, it isn’t going to work long term at Chelsea.

A large percentage of Chelsea fans just do not want this kind of football, and there’s other modern styles of football - like the German gegenpressing style of Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann - which I believe suit this club more, are more exciting, more dynamic and still wins trophies. I’d also argue the style Bournemouth play under Andoni Iraola is very akin to a modern version of what Chelsea fans love.

Its significant that although Sarri finished 3rd in the PL and won the Europa League in his one year in charge, a lot of fans still wanted him gone, and he’s not remembered fondly by many, purely because of the style of football.

I’ve always felt some styles suit certain clubs and others don’t, and personally, I don’t really think this philosophy suits Chelsea long term. Even if Maresca succeeds, it wouldn’t shock me if some fans still aren’t going to be happy because of the style. And if so, it won’t take much for them to turn on him the next time a bad run of form comes.

That said, from a personal perspective, my main priority as a fan is winning football matches and trophies. If Enzo Maresca’s style does that consistently, I’ll be happy, celebrate and congratulate him. Ultimately I just want to win, even if the style isn’t my preference.

Which brings us to the big questions. Where are we going to finish, and how many points are we going to get?

I think there’s an interesting statistical analysis and comparison between us in the 18 PL games up to and including the Brentford home game in mid-December, and the 11 PL games since then.

Up to and including Brentford, we scored 37 PL goals (2.05 goals per game) and were on 34 points (1.88 points per game). Taking those stats over a 38 game season, we’d have finished on 78 goals and 72 points, comfortably in the top 4.

In our last 11 PL games however, things have changed dramatically. In the last 11 games we've scored 16 goals (1.45 goals per game) and 15 points (1.36 points per game). Over a 38 game season, that’s 55 goals and 51 points, which is mid table form.

So lets swing this forward. If we continue at 1.36 points per game, for the final 10 games of the PL season, we’ll get 13.6 more points. I’ll round this up to 14. We’re currently on 49 points, so that would take us to 63 points, which is the exact same we got last season under Maurcio Pochettino.

This is hardly progress. And although there’s a chance it could get us a 5th place finish, the chances are we’d end up finishing 6th again, and playing Europa league football.

As CFC Central pointed out on Twitter recently, we’ve not beaten a top 10 PL team for two months and we’ve got a few of them coming up in the run-in. In other words, our form needs to take an upturn and sharpish, because if it doesn’t we could end up 6th or 7th and barely make European football, which would be an unmitigated disaster for which there would have to be serious consequences at all levels of the men's team.

Now I’ve said before, a huge responsibility lies with the Sporting Directors. They have, in my mind, actively weakened the squad in the last two transfer windows and not given Maresca all the tools he needs and asked for. Not to mention the injuries we’ve had in that time. So it’s by far solely Maresca’s fault and he’s not the person who should be leaving first if we fail to get our targets - that’s the Sporting Directors.

However, even taking that into account, the drop off in form is alarming. Creating less chances, scoring less goals, winning less games, for over 2 and half months now, with the football being more tedious, slow, and predictable, is not good. Enzo Maresca does have to take partial responsibility for this, and really not tell us this is how we play and we have to lump it.

He’s got to find a way to get Palmer firing, up the tempo and get us scoring more goals again.

There is some hope. Nicolas Jackson coming back will be a big help, just as Wesley Fofana’s return definitely made us better at the back against Leicester, and will do going forward. He adds quality and leadership to the defence. Romeo Lavia, if he can come back and stay fit, will also improve us. Noni Madueke when he returns will help his pace and goals too.

All these players add athleticism to the team as well, and allow us to play with a lot more pace and energy.

The reality is, we need to improve our performances, our form, and our goalscoring, whilst keeping up the clean sheets we’ve had in the last two PL games. By my reckoning, we need about 16-18 from here points to ensure a top 5 place and Champions League football.

Its not impossible, but its going to be a challenge, probably the biggest of Enzo Maresca’s short managerial career. He just has to succeed, both for his sake and the sake of Chelsea FC, because we need CL football urgently - and whatever they say publicly, the owners want it too.

If we don’t get it, it shouldn’t only be Enzo Maresca under fire, but those above him and the entire strategy too.

The Score