Enzo M in or out? (Sep 25)

In or out?


  • Total voters
    83
I still harbour a slim hope of a buy one Enzo, get one free. Kill two lame ducks with one stone.

 
Fill your boots: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/trainer/verfuegbaretrainer/statistik

I am not (and never really have been) a fan of Maresca. I didn't rate him at Leicester and thought he was the wrong appointment at the beginning of last season. I don't generally like inflexible system managers who play unadventurous, unspontaneous football. This way or nothing. Seeing how we utterly collapsed in the last two games after the red cards (against two teams with plainly worse squads) is evidence of a manager who is incapable of adaptation. Maresca can't (or won't) position himself against the poor decisions of the leadership and sporting directors. He considers Jackson to be his ideal striker yet acquiesces when he's allowed/told to leave and is replaced by one worse player and another who specialises in a different position. We have also seen evidence of poor player profiling: João Pedro is not a target man and we don't get the best out of Reece at centre mid, for example. He also doesn't appear to notice fundamental problems: with Jackson and Madueke (and Palmer) missing we don't have forwards who take enough shots. We have Garnacho on the bench who specialises in that (and only that) - why isn't he being used? These aren't small problems.

That said, last year was a par, with us qualifying for the Champions' League for the first time under the new ownership, and winning the Conference League. It was also a clear improvement on the two previous seasons. Winning the Club World Cup was pretty well meaningless (not that I would admit that in front of opposition fans), but I hoped we could carry that momentum into the new season, particularly with a less disastrous transfer window than the preceding summer. Of course, this hasn't happened.

I agree with @Remodez 's point that we as a fanbase may be guilty of overrating the squad. We probably do have the fourth-best squad in the league, so fourth place as an accomplishment (and a continued objective) isn't unreasonable. The squad are almost all at the same or similar stages of their careers, there's an evident (if understandable) lack of leadership, and there are gaps in the squad which have been an issue for several years. If we are going to replace Maresca with the intention of challenging the current top three, we need to be sure that it's going to be with somebody who is actually going to be better. Unless we are willing to pay a severance fee (which I doubt), we're limited to the managers on the above list who are already available. My point is: yes, we almost certainly could have somebody better than Maresca, but, especially given the lack of competence in the people employed to make these decisions, things could be a whole lot worse.

Spalletti, anyone?

 
I still harbour a slim hope of a buy one Enzo, get one free. Kill two lame ducks with one stone.
You always were a dreamer.

We'll be lucky to get rid of one.

 
In short….out.

However if we don’t adopt a new way of obtaining a manager we will have the same conversation 6 months after hiring a replacement and still be nowhere closer to getting back to not only winning but doing it in an entertaining and ruthless manner.

His backing of Wacko last season was madness, letting Petrovic go and keeping Bawb (maybe not his shout ?) contrary to some, I actually believe we’ve a great squad to work with, but we need a little experience in key areas just to keep the heads level when games go like yesterday (how I miss Thiago Silva and Giroud)

I’m not one for keeping up with the latest greatest manager available, so would be hesitant to f**k him out until a clearly better option is ready to come to us, but regardless I’d say his exit letter is coming sooner rather than later.

 
Definitely should be out. But apart from a more attacking outlook, I can’t see any manager on Earth achieving much more at this level of football with this youth team. There’s a handful of players in the squad who look to have what it takes to play well at the top of the game, but there’s also a few who would be warming the bench for Championship teams.

So I really don’t rate Maresca, but this squad is a bit of a problem thanks to our weird owners.

 
200.gif


 
Definitely should be out. But apart from a more attacking outlook, I can’t see any manager on Earth achieving much more at this level of football with this youth team. There’s a handful of players in the squad who look to have what it takes to play well at the top of the game, but there’s also a few who would be warming the bench for Championship teams.

So I really don’t rate Maresca, but this squad is a bit of a problem thanks to our weird owners.
Crystal Palace squad isn’t better than us and look what their manager is doing. A better manager gets FAR MORE out of this squad period.

Maresca has an ideology about football and way of playing he will never change THIS is our downfall.

Glasner and Iraola gets more out of this team.

Why do we keep thinking we have a relegation squad.

 
Need a 4th option. Don't care. Because we know the next one is another blueco puppet not fit for the task.
I'm with Ax and picked on the fence due to this! ^^

Enzo makes some weird decisions, but it seems he can only work with what he's got or what he's told to do!

We played good direct football during the CWC and even the week before the season, playing those friendlies! Then just one week later, we return to our new default premiership settings of slow possession, boring, non-direct, sideways and back passing sh*t! Surely no professional manager thinks this is the best way to play after wiping big teams off the park before the season! I think Enzo is instructed by the board on much more than what we realise. The last few months with Poch told us that, and with Enzo speaking out more, it looks like it'll go the same way! These "coaches" can't pick players from the market for the benefit of the team, and only get players that are given to them by the SD's. There is no way Enzo has the only input to what happens on the pitch; he's still even playing Poch's inverted system, but one step further!

Should he go? Probably, but we'll just get a few months run with a new manager bounce, to return to the same questions again until the manager speaks out, loses a dressing room (no doubt from board pressure) and is told to go! Rinse and repeat again and again!

The next 2 games will be huge for Enzo. Can he fill the injured player slots easily, or will he have to play one of two LWs out of position that he didn't even want or need?

 
Marco Bielsa. A madman who will get them running,.

He would be short term, but would get them really having a go and learning the game.
If Marco Bielsa comes here, we would have to forfeit games due to too many injuries after 2 weeks.

 
De Zerbi, Glasner or Iraola. They are all miles better than Maresca.

Glasner would be my first choice.

 
I do believe that he's not happy wth the signings, and he's been well and truly bent over like every manager who's had the displeasure of working under these muppets.

But this bloke is garbage, he appeals to Football Twitter hipsters and that's it. He'll have a nothing career once he goes and we won't hear much of him. I'll be surprised if he can even land a Premier League job.

 
Crystal Palace squad isn’t better than us and look what their manager is doing. A better manager gets FAR MORE out of this squad period.

Maresca has an ideology about football and way of playing he will never change THIS is our downfall.

Glasner and Iraola gets more out of this team.

Why do we keep thinking we have a relegation squad.
I’m not disagreeing with you as I both feel another manager could do better with these players whilst not knowing for sure.

And there are one or two other factors beyond players and coach that could well be factors for us that Palace and others don’t have.

Nobody else has invested 2 billion quid in three years, certainly not Palace, as they tend to sell their best stock. And perhaps even more than that, nobody expects anything from Palace. Nobody would bat an eyelid if they were relegated. We have two European cups and piles of other honours in recent times and right now are World Club Cup champions after smashing PSG. For almost any coach and for these juvenile players we have, that is a pressure and especially expectation that Palace could only try to imagine.

I still think Maresca is pants, but I also don’t think only a change of coach is between us and world domination in 2026.

 
I'm with Ax and picked on the fence due to this! ^^

Enzo makes some weird decisions, but it seems he can only work with what he's got or what he's told to do!

We played good direct football during the CWC and even the week before the season, playing those friendlies! Then just one week later, we return to our new default premiership settings of slow possession, boring, non-direct, sideways and back passing sh*t! Surely no professional manager thinks this is the best way to play after wiping big teams off the park before the season! I think Enzo is instructed by the board on much more than what we realise. The last few months with Poch told us that, and with Enzo speaking out more, it looks like it'll go the same way! These "coaches" can't pick players from the market for the benefit of the team, and only get players that are given to them by the SD's. There is no way Enzo has the only input to what happens on the pitch; he's still even playing Poch's inverted system, but one step further!

Should he go? Probably, but we'll just get a few months run with a new manager bounce, to return to the same questions again until the manager speaks out, loses a dressing room (no doubt from board pressure) and is told to go! Rinse and repeat again and again!

The next 2 games will be huge for Enzo. Can he fill the injured player slots easily, or will he have to play one of two LWs out of position that he didn't even want or need?
It's what we have been conditioned for the better part of two decades mate.

Right from Claudio the stand was set. Many of us thought it to be a great season. Second place, and a CL semi final. Building. Roman thought different and installed a winners mentality.

So we are used to a club set up to win. Only winning mattered. Managers, for the most part, got top players on top wages. If we fell short the manager got chopped and it fixed all our problems, for a while, and we won more trophies.

So many still think getting shot of the manager fixes things. It does not. Still the same owners and directors that do not prioritize winning, and focus on their project. This cycle will just keep continuing. We will be back here with the next manager, and the one after, and the one after him etc...

 
On the fence for me, for the reasons that @axman2526 eloquently explained. It doesn't matter who is in the dugout as long as Winstanley and Stewart are still here. Nearly 4 years in and they are yet to make a single positive transfer contribution, other than bringing in Joe Shields and outbidding for blindingly obvious targets. There is no strategy for the squad and Cobham is being left to rot as well, everything is scarily like Bartomeu's running of Barcelona.

On Maresca himself - I think he has the potential to be a good coach but I am outright concerned he doesn't have the humility to want to change. He knows the problems in the squad, he knows the football is slow and stagnant but I think he genuinely believes he is right and everyone else is wrong. It's now to the extent he blames everything - the players, the squad building, the niche roles of players, the refs, the red cards, the weather - but himself for a malaise. He carries on like Conte or Mourinho when it all goes wrong, without the history of success to show for it, and I think managers like that are outdated and outclassed in the modern game.

 
Jesus nearly £2 billion in 3 years...

Apart from a few of the players we've bought we're no better now than we were with boys from the academy and the remains of the old guard when Frank first took over.

Probably worse cause they were already a team and wanting to play for the club.

Glad it's not my money Winstanley, Stewart, Shields and Jewell have been pissing up the wall - the good news (for them) is they've all got extended contracts until 2031!!!

 
Back
Top