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Craige Coren's avatar

I wonder if our results before Christmas and since had been mixed up rather than a good run followed by a bad run how sentiment might be different? Is some ways Enzo has made a rod for his own back with the early performance of the team. He has also been affected by some key players being off form, including Jackson before his injury and then suddenly three or four of them were injured as a key moment. Palmer is definitely suffering from the lack of support that he gets from Jackson and Noni, which is now clearer to most when they’re not in the team. Palmer has a good connection with both of them and that comes from someone who’s not a great Noni fan.

I think the comparison with Maurizio Sarri and his style of play is somewhat unfair. It was a totally different era with a different squad of players at his disposal. That was one of the real criticisms at the time. He just was not using the talent he had in the squad. In comparison, I think Enzo is developing the squad, he is also developing himself as a Premier League manager. Let’s not forget this is his first season at the top table. Personally I have confidence that he will evolve and learn from this initial season at CFC and we certainly cannot afford to be changing managers again. We need some consistency.

Finally, let’s give credit where credit is due. Connor on X posted this yesterday which is something we need to account for.

https://x.com/connorholden00/status/1899164308728054263?s=61&t=y5kanR_7JEYJ21CYVauUow

Score as you know I like your articles, they’re always insightful and this one was again. I also know it’s hard to get across all over your points of view in one piece of writing. I think there’s a lot to come from this team and the leadership from the Manager and we just need to give them the opportunity to develop.

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Andy Setterfield's avatar

The dilema is that regardless of your view of Maresca ball which I have consistently said I would support, what i see in the second half of the season is Chelsea playing around passing the ball around the back and inviting the press, which because opposing teams know we do this they press doubly hard and when we make mistakes out of the press we give the opposing team the ball back ...

Its a vicious circle there is no doubt about it in my mind Maresca must change, we cant continue to be Lethargic in attack giving the opposing team time to organise and get behind the ball.

End of season the SD's will sacrifice Maresca as they've sacrificed other managers laying all the blame on him sam as this time last year when we were enjoying a great run of form under Poche ending up in european places and people were saying lets see how he starts his second season.

I see the same situation that removed Poche out the door repeating and the SD's accepting no responsibility what so ever.

The fact is our managers Tuchel, Potter, Lampard,Pochettino & Maresca cant all be bad managers can they?

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Mitch Cumstein's avatar

Iraola has worked absolute wonders at Bournemouth. Absolutely love their aggressive, direct, pressing style of play.

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Kris Petrov's avatar

While we're looking for accountability in some people should the team finish out of the CL pool, we should also keep an close eye on Maresca next year. 25/26 season will be crucial for him if he will cement his position or if he will turn to be a hiring mistake. SDs have done less than a decent job for sure but the coach is who can elevate the team to another level so we meet our targets. So far, the slow football we play looks predictable and one that people doubt will bring us back CL.

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Roger's avatar

We have to remember the he is a young, relatively inexperienced coach with virtually no European competitions to his name.

Plus a hire and fire type boss probably makes him more safety first than the more experienced manager we've had before. I hate the football we mostly play but its the old if we have the ball they can't score syndrome.

I'll give him this season and judge more thoroughly next.

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