In a line which would have been genuinely unimaginable not two weeks ago, it appears Enzo Maresca will become the Chelsea manager before May is out.
Maresca has managed just 67 senior games across an underwhelming 14-game stint with Parma in Serie B and the title-winning 2023-24 Championship season with Leicester.
Yet the Italian’s greatest selling point is his history with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, first as manager of their Elite Development Squad (EDS) and then as assistant manager of the senior team.
Given the success of former Guardiolan disciples across Europe of late – whether that’s Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten-but-one Bayer Leverkusen side or Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal – Chelsea have attempted to find one of their own.
Here’s what former West Brom midfielder Maresca could bring to Stamford Bridge.
Guardiola and the 3-box-3
Maresca’s formative coaching years were spent under Mauricio Pellegrini at West Ham, before joining Guardiola’s City set-up in 2020.
In his first season with the EDS, Maresca won Premier League 2 by 14 points with a team led by Liam Delap and current Chelsea star Cole Palmer.
This led Guardiola to say in May 2021: “We are delighted with Enzo Maresca, all the organisation he has done with the EDS, he showed he will become an extraordinary manager in the future. Extraordinary.
“I feel it. Like I felt it when I saw Mikel Arteta I see it with Enzo, [he] will be an extraordinary manager and he helped to develop many, many young players.”
Guardiola is clearly the greatest influence on Maresca’s tactical ideology, focused on control and possession across the pitch.
One full-back inverts at all times, although they can alternate to vary the shape throughout games and keep the opposition guessing.
This works to create an in-possession shape pioneered by Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff and advanced more recently by Guardiola, Arteta and Xavi – the 3-box-3.
While Maresca’s sides will present as a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, the inverting full-back will move into the midfield, where a holding midfielder will stay back to partner them ahead of a three-man defence.
This creates a five-man defensive block to stop transitions developing and allow the team to maintain as much control as possible at all times.
This is why Leicester had the best defence in last season’s Championship, conceding just 41 goals in 46 games, as well as the second-highest share of possession behind Southampton.
It is also why some fans complained at times about staid football from Leicester and why, when it was not properly executed towards the end of the season, they appeared vulnerable to effective pressing sides.
A telling quote comes from Maresca’s thesis while studying at famed Italian coaching school Coverciano, where he wrote a paper entitled “Football and Chess”.
“There are a lot of similarities [between the two games],” he said. “The most important is positional play and strategy. For a coach, it’s important to have the mentality of a chess player: develop a plan, study counter moves, choose the arrangement of the pieces.”
How Maresca could reignite Enzo Fernandez’s Chelsea career
One problem Chelsea’s owners have been keen to solve with their new managerial hire has been Enzo Fernandez’s perceived underperformance this season.
Also suffering from an inguinal hernia for most of last season, Fernandez struggled to form a solid relationship with fellow £100m-plus man Moises Caicedo, who looked significantly improved alongside Conor Gallagher at the end of the season.
Yet Maresca’s possession-heavy game will likely suit Fernandez’s slower passing style, with one of the two advanced midfield positions in the central box earmarked for the Argentine.
Alongside either Palmer or Gallagher, Fernandez can play a similarly valuable role to Harry Winks under Maresca at Leicester.
“He’s by far the best manager I’ve worked for,” Winks told Sky Sports last March.
“He’s incredible. I think everybody will say he’s going right to the top in [terms of] managerial stature. He’s got everything.
“He’s a great man-manager. He’s tactically incredible, some of the decisions that he tells us to do before the game and how he views the match is something I’ve never experienced before in football.”
A true head coach
Another key trait of Maresca’s is his willingness to hand over control of transfers and simply work with the players provided.
While he will still be able to provide input, final say with remain with co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley.
Given Mauricio Pochettino’s departure was fuelled in part by his desire for greater control over off-pitch affairs, this will have been a serious bonus for Chelsea’s owners and co-sporting directors.
And with Chelsea set to lose the likes of Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah this summer to aid Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) difficulties, a decision Pochettino did not agree with, this is another potential battle Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali can avoid by hiring Maresca.
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