more crap from the coach

https://chelsea.news/2025/01/enzo-maresca-chelsea-crystal-palace/

the reason we lost is because once again you failed to use your squad, at least one sub should have happened at 55-60 mins, a blind man could see we were getting over run in the middle of the park, should have sent on Veiga or James to help in the middle and subbed out either Neto or Sancho and put Palmer on RW

58 minutes ago, RMH said:

What would have been your options? 

We had options to change things up, whether it would result in a win is debateable but it's better than doing nothing 3 games in a row. 

I would have favoured a more defensively and counter approach considering what's happened in our previous games and the amount of chances we missed this game or simply just stop rushing things like we are still at 0-0. We never looked calm or composed in the second half. Noni on much eariler for Neto or Sancho depending on the method you want to adopt, Guiu on for Jackson much earlier, Tosin on for enzo if we go 5atb, otherwise Viega in midfield just for more defensive steel. James I'm guessing wasn't fully fit so not bothered he didn't come on. 

You can't just do nothing and complain you didn't have options for subs when you aren't willingly to adapt in the first place. 

Needs to do better at controlling games, especially when it’s evident it’s going to come down to fine margins. Which has been the case since Brentford. 
 

Veiga/James should have came on alongside Guiu. 

It’s been a bad few games but I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom. He’s doing quite a bit better than Pochetino/Potter after 20 games. Still creating quite a few chances which for me anyway is the main thing.

Poor finishing has caught up with us the last few weeks. Remains to be seen whether he can tighten up the defence and retain the attacking fluidity. 

Main disappointment for me has been not seeing out Fulham and Palace, that’s been somewhat of a trend under him that the last 10-15 mins are never comfortable. 

 

1 hour ago, Remodez said:

We had options to change things up, whether it would result in a win is debateable but it's better than doing nothing 3 games in a row. 

I would have favoured a more defensively and counter approach considering what's happened in our previous games and the amount of chances we missed this game or simply just stop rushing things like we are still at 0-0. We never looked calm or composed in the second half. Noni on much eariler for Neto or Sancho depending on the method you want to adopt, Guiu on for Jackson much earlier, Tosin on for enzo if we go 5atb, otherwise Viega in midfield just for more defensive steel. James I'm guessing wasn't fully fit so not bothered he didn't come on. 

You can't just do nothing and complain you didn't have options for subs when you aren't willingly to adapt in the first place. 

Agrees he certainly had options.

Veiga for Enzo to play a DM next to Caicedo, Palmer to the right, Felix or Nkunku to the 10, Guiu earlier, Veiga on to make a back 5 where Colwill is the CCB, Madueke on earlier, James on for Gusto.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but as I did for fulham I would have liked us to freshen up by doing this:

 

Sanchez

 

James

Acheampong 

Colwill

Veiga

Cucurella

 

Caicedo

Enzo

 

Madueke

Guiu

Neto

 

4 subs made, pace to counter, Felix and Nkunku available if we conceded 

Edited January 5, 20251 yr by axman2526

On 04/01/2025 at 02:47, Bob stark said:

Just a month ago,Maresca is an elite coach. Now he is not good. What change?

 

 

Don't think too many have called him an elite coach.

He had a very good start and I do like him, but he has to start being more proactive and improve his game management. What is the point of having a big squad if you refuse to use players? Like many coaches before him, he appears to have a stubborn streak which is a bad trait to have. LEARN from your mistakes FFS!

 

1 minute ago, Nibs said:

Don't think too many have called him an elite coach.

He had a very good start and I do like him, but he has to start being more proactive and improve his game management. What is the point of having a big squad if you refuse to use players? Like many coaches before him, he appears to have a stubborn streak which is a bad trait to have. LEARN from your mistakes FFS!

 

Maresca had a lot to prove and still does. 

He's going to have a lot of doubters because he's barely had a managerial career. How many managers have gone from managing in the Championship to managing a team challenging for the top 4? I can't recall myself. 

I'm trying my hardest to be optimistic as much as I can because god knows the forum doesn't need any more pessimists, but if he bottles Champions League football he needs to go. A team like this has to be getting Champions League football. 

No one knows if making subs as suggested would have ensured a win, or even might have caused us to lose the game V Palace.

Maresca has shown previously that he is well able to make subs at the appropriate time to our benefit.

Btw , who would the ShedEnders have preferred as our coach , and who would they want as a replacement ?

 

.

3 hours ago, Remodez said:

We had options to change things up, whether it would result in a win is debateable but it's better than doing nothing 3 games in a row. 

I would have favoured a more defensively and counter approach considering what's happened in our previous games and the amount of chances we missed this game or simply just stop rushing things like we are still at 0-0. We never looked calm or composed in the second half. Noni on much eariler for Neto or Sancho depending on the method you want to adopt, Guiu on for Jackson much earlier, Tosin on for enzo if we go 5atb, otherwise Viega in midfield just for more defensive steel. James I'm guessing wasn't fully fit so not bothered he didn't come on. 

You can't just do nothing and complain you didn't have options for subs when you aren't willingly to adapt in the first place. 

I have already agreed that Noni and Guiu should have come on earlier. I don’t think that subbing Tosin or Veiga for Enzo would have worked because we would have left Caicedo as the only midfielder, meaning that we wouldn’t be able to use the midfield to build the counter, which is what you suggest. What you suggest is we go full Burnley, defend and kick it up front for our attackers to run forward. What we need, we’re really desperate for, is a DM and we haven’t got one available.

Edit to add that this is down to the very unbalanced team the board has built.

Edited January 5, 20251 yr by RMH

16 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

No one knows if making subs as suggested would have ensured a win, or even might have caused us to lose the game V Palace.

Maresca has shown previously that he is well able to make subs at the appropriate time to our benefit.

Btw , who would the ShedEnders have preferred as our coach , and who would they want as a replacement ?

 

.

Everyone could tell from the 30th minute onwards Palace were going to take over the game if we didn't change things. Go in the match thread and take a look, anyone could see that. 

We've already had a good sample size of what happens when we refuse to change things and the tempo goes the other way from our previous games.

Just like everyone and his dog knew that playing Disasi RB is a terrible idea, and guess what? It cost us dearly.  

3 minutes ago, RMH said:

I have already agreed that Noni and Guiu should have come on earlier. I don’t think that subbing Tosin or Veiga for Enzo would have worked because we would have left Caicedo as the only midfielder, meaning that we wouldn’t be able to use the midfield to build the counter, which is what you suggest. What you suggest is we go full Burnley, defend and kick it up front for our attackers to run forward. What we need, we’re really desperate for, is a DM and we haven’t got one available.

Tosin/James/Veiga for one of the wingers then shift Palmer out wide. 5 at the back or have Veiga/James another body in midfield. 

There were options to control the game better. It isn’t about parking the bus it’s about slowing the game down and disrupting Palace’s momentum. 
 

 

He seems to be a victim of his own success, none of us even the most optimistic thought we’d sail back into the top 4 so soon after what can only be described as 2 very poor seasons under the 2 bob stewardship of Clearfake. Forget about the media hype of challenging last month it was always just that, Maresca was correct to downplay it as this squad is clearly not ready. Squad Lacks leaders on and off the pitch and critically apart from a couple of players no experience at lifting 🏆 s.

There have been a lot more injuries with a couple of long term absences that are missed hugely, the defending has been iffy all season but the attacking phase was unstoppable at times with further such confidence boosting the squad from the Conf League outings. Paradoxically after that comp has paused and the focus has been 100% on the EPL the team has reverted to pre Maresca type. Unable to take chances, reliant 100% on Palmer almost, the midfield is all at sea along with the defending. Only thing we haven’t seen from earlier in season and last one is Sanchez making howlers…..yet.

I must be honest and say when Maresca was appointed it was another puzzling decision to me , in fact I was against it, zero experience coaching in EPL. But he has shown us all glimpses of what the team is potentially capable of re entertaining attacking football with a top 4 placement. Currently after a shambles of a festive fixture season club is still 4th, 4 points behind the Gooners who are the Dippers only challengers according to the UK media. Hoping season can restart now with some good cup runs and still challenging for a UCL spot. 

Glass is half full in my humble opinion no need to panic . 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Tosin/James/Veiga for one of the wingers then shift Palmer out wide. 5 at the back or have Veiga/James another body in midfield. 

There were options to control the game better. It isn’t about parking the bus it’s about slowing the game down and disrupting Palace’s momentum. 
 

 

I think that would unbalanced the team quite a lot. You’re thinking about going to a back 5, which is setting up quite defensively removing one of the attacking players. You may think that those players can play DM but it is obvious that our coach doesn’t think that, and I think that he’s right there. And, what would our fans say when we go all defensive at Selhurst Park? We failed to get the three points because we missed two or three clear chances (as in 1v1), not because we were set up badly. I agree that we needed fresh legs, I don’t think an entire change of tactics to go defensive was necessary, and we haven’t got the players to reinforce the midfield, which is what we needed. In any case, Enzo should have been deeper to help Caicedo out, but he’s not very strong defensively. Obviously that’s my opinion.

57 minutes ago, RMH said:

I think that would unbalanced the team quite a lot. You’re thinking about going to a back 5, which is setting up quite defensively removing one of the attacking players. You may think that those players can play DM but it is obvious that our coach doesn’t think that, and I think that he’s right there. And, what would our fans say when we go all defensive at Selhurst Park? We failed to get the three points because we missed two or three clear chances (as in 1v1), not because we were set up badly. I agree that we needed fresh legs, I don’t think an entire change of tactics to go defensive was necessary, and we haven’t got the players to reinforce the midfield, which is what we needed. In any case, Enzo should have been deeper to help Caicedo out, but he’s not very strong defensively. Obviously that’s my opinion.

There were shouts about having James/Veiga added around the 70th minute. 
 

Fact of the matter is, this is the 3rd game on the bounce that’s been poorly managed. 5th game in a row that’s been left to fine margins. One way or another, Maresca needs to control the game better when it’s clear we are falling into the old habit of wasting chances. Whether with subs or coaching the team to be more conservative. 

It will be interesting to see how we do over the next month, now we are in a blip. We’re still learning about Maresca and nobody really knows if he can turn it around.

Personally I think he’s hoping the attackers start firing again, we’re still creating enough chances to win games we just can’t score. Will he change things up? I have no idea tbh, let’s see what the line up is like against Bournemouth next week.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

It will be interesting to see how we do over the next month, now we are in a blip. We’re still learning about Maresca and nobody really knows if he can turn it around.

Personally I think he’s hoping the attackers start firing again, we’re still creating enough chances to win games we just can’t score. Will he change things up? I have no idea tbh, let’s see what the line up is like against Bournemouth next week.

If he is pinning his hopes on Jackson, we're f**ked.

 

2 minutes ago, Nibs said:

If he is pinning his hopes on Jackson, we're f**ked.

 

There’s nobody else though is there? Nkunku isn’t a striker, Guiu isn’t experienced enough to take on premier league defenders.

It would make a lot of sense if we could buy a striker this month to compete with Jackson.

Liam Delap would be ideal for me but honestly I’d take anyone half decent.

Back to the pattern of lots of the games last season. Palmer is still the main and probably only spark, scored one and arguably created a couple of chances that should have won the game, if not for the usual suspects. The likes of Neto, Sancho, Enzo etc need to step up in attack, and I aren't even going to mention Jackson. 10 days ago, we looked really comfortable holding on the third spot, now with the few chasing teams with better forms, we looked really vulnerable. We meant to have a deep squad, but even without the injury tolls from last season, we actually don't have lots of options. Everyone had their fun moments, but when it's hard at this time of the season, few have stepped up.  We can all talk up giving the likes of Nkunku and Felix more game time, but when they played ( aside from Thursday night football at nowhere), they were just poor and don't deserve more game time.

Actually, I'm giving Maresca a break here, the team is still poor, he's done good to get us this far, now it's the time to really earn his long term career with Chelsea.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

There’s nobody else though is there? Nkunku isn’t a striker, Guiu isn’t experienced enough to take on premier league defenders.

It would make a lot of sense if we could buy a striker this month to compete with Jackson.

Liam Delap would be ideal for me but honestly I’d take anyone half decent.

whos fault is that?

Nkunku should have been given chances particularly in home matches, in the end hes given up and can't wait to go, Guiu hasnt had a sniff, SO to say hes not good enough is wrong, Delap is playing his first season in the PL and isnt doing bad is he? 

GO AND BUY IVAN TONEY

What I find extraordinary is that Maresca hasn't once tried Nkunku in the centre and Palmer on the right, which would seem to be the blindingly obvious way to get the best out of your two best attacking midfield players, in their best positions. 

Instead we have Nkunku collecting splinters, and Palmer crowded out in the centre, going back into CM to look for the ball, or more recently shoved out to the left to allow  Fernandez to come forward on the right. 

What makes it even more bizarre is look where Palmer played when Maresca managed him at Man City U-21s : 

Not exactly rocket science is it LOL

I think the preoccupation, presumably a mandate from Eghbali, to get the best out of and build the team around Enzo Fernandez, is clouding the thinking and buggering things up big time. 

It’s four games, albeit four poor games. No need to panic or call for change. Definitely things to address / improve - a good test for the manager and players. This somewhat reminds me of our preseason form. 

He’ll get it going again. Want a little stability at the club, see how they turn this around. 

We do need to address CB, another defensive mid, and a striker though. Big gaps. 

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

What I find extraordinary is that Maresca hasn't once tried Nkunku in the centre and Palmer on the right, which would seem to be the blindingly obvious way to get the best out of your two best attacking midfield players, in their best positions. 

Instead we have Nkunku collecting splinters, and Palmer crowded out in the centre, going back into CM to look for the ball, or more recently shoved out to the left to allow  Fernandez to come forward on the right. 

What makes it even more bizarre is look where Palmer played when Maresca managed him at Man City U-21s : 

Not exactly rocket science is it LOL

I think the preoccupation, presumably a mandate from Eghbali, to get the best out of and build the team around Enzo Fernandez, is clouding the thinking and buggering things up big time. 

Maybe it is about Enzo, not sure. Either way I think a lot of us agree Cole is better starting off from the right, and we are better for him there. 

Could well be Nkunku is a happy camper playing the number 10 role with double digits already (in the league).

Unless Maresca is willing to change his system, I don't want Palmer hugging the touchline which is what our wingers do. 

I am completely fine with Maresca's system. I think a lot of our success this season is built on that foundation. My issue is the game management side. 

10 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Unless Maresca is willing to change his system, I don't want Palmer hugging the touchline which is what our wingers do. 

I am completely fine with Maresca's system. I think a lot of our success this season is built on that foundation. My issue is the game management side. 

But at the moment, our "success" is less points per game than we managed in the second half of last season ... ?

On 03/01/2025 at 17:38, axman2526 said:

Hopefully they are right then.

Problem is even if they do get the chop is still this ownership group who pick the replacements, and they get things wrong almost all the time.

Until we are shot of these owners I don't think we make it back to the top table.

Other clubs have had success with far worse owners than ours.