1 hour ago, dkw said:

I'm not sure there's that much to work out about the way we play really, there's nothing really out there tactics wise, no real surprises for teams to defend. Just excellence in the middle, good wide players and Cole Palmer ripping teams apart.

So hopefully the finding out thing shouldn't affect us. I think it's more keeping players fighting with him, keeping them interested in training etc.

It's a very very young squad, so keeping their enthusiasm and drive high if we do hit a bad period will be the big test.

I’m sure at the top level there is loads to learn and adapt to when it comes to playing Chelsea.

I’m no expert but there will be several tweaks Maresca makes to a standard 4-2-3-1 system that most of us don’t see. Top managers work these out and try to nullify them and some will succeed. Maresca however is already beginning to show good in game management and allied to the quality of squad we have we should be ok.

As I said earlier I don’t see us finishing below 3rd.

 

2 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

I’m sure at the top level there is loads to learn and adapt to when it comes to playing Chelsea.

I’m no expert but there will be several tweaks Maresca makes to a standard 4-2-3-1 system that most of us don’t see. Top managers work these out and try to nullify them and some will succeed. Maresca however is already beginning to show good in game management and allied to the quality of squad we have we should be ok.

As I said earlier I don’t see us finishing below 3rd.

100% agree.

I like Maresca, he's willing to play the chess game.

He sets up his team to counter the opposition. Sometimes it's the right tactics from the start and on occasion it may be wrong one. But like the spuds game he adapts, if he can, when he gets it wrong. I really like that.

 

Also about the dip they had at Leicester...

I didn't watch maresca last year but I have no reason to doubt what Leicester fans have said about him on here. We've already seen though that maybe he couldn't implement different tactics or adapt because of the quality of players at his disposal at the time. By extension it's also not far fetched to assume that's also the reason for the dip.

Maybe he wanted to change tactics but was limited by the players. But as a previous poster posted...no need to worry about dips just yet imo.

Round 16 is over and he is four points ahead of Arteta and his ultimate project of conquering the world of football with this modern reinterpretation of Stoke City.

 

Not going to lie..after the last couple of years, this feels good. 

I think we can all see what will probably stop us winning the league - our defence. Maresca still needs to sort that out. Way too soft and leaky. 
 

However this good form has been quite unexpected so let’s just enjoy it while it’s here. We will eventually slip up but it’s great big back near the top again after the last couple of years. 

Great win today. An absolute banana-skin of a fixture in recent years, and one we (for the most part) never looked like losing. Maresca deserves a lot of credit, winning fixtures like this and snapping losing streaks is the hallmark of a good manager.

On 13/12/2024 at 18:04, Deino said:

Too early. 

What do you say now? 2 points covered already in a matchday. 🙂

7 clear of City in 5th and 9 ahead of Villa. Crucial. 

Ok am starting to believe he may have something special about him.

I like how he’s got every player a-team, b-team or youngsters involved in this season. It doesn’t matter if they play against Astana or Brentford, players can be better or worse (f**k me Badiashille and Disasi are shocking), but they are giving their all. That’s something to be praised about Maresca, he’s got all the players playing for him.

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Not going to lie..after the last couple of years, this feels good. 

Imagine if somebody made a bet on the table looking like that at this stage of the season.

7 points ahead of City is wild. 

2 hours ago, haidertalal said:

What do you say now? 2 points covered already in a matchday. 🙂

Too early

I owe Maresca and the owners an apology.

I questioned this appointment and thought we made a big mistake. He's proven me wrong emphatically.

He is right in what he said after the game.

Title winners don't concede a goal like we did at the end of the game yesterday.

Our attacking throw in ends up in a Brentford goal. 

We need to control that situation, not let them break. Even after they break Colwill and Tosin need to do better. In that situation Colwill show foul Mbeumo.

Whatever happens, this season is a positive one. Football looks good, players putting in the effort and having fun, no primadonnas just yet and owners not going around giving silly interviews

7 consecutive wins in all competitions.

The first time we've achieved this since 2019 when Lampard was coach.

I give him a lot of credit. Same to Winstanley & Stewart (plus ownership) for picking him out, it seems they got it spot on.

Yesterday was one of those occasions where we'd almost certainly have drawn the game under Tuchel for example as he'd have persisted with the 3-2 build-up despite Brentford parking the bus. Maresca went with the 3-1 instead to give us an extra man in attack and as it turned out that extra man was the one to break the deadlock shortly before halftime so that turned out to be a masterstroke.

Maresca is making us dream again. And that is pretty great.

 

In his post match interview he said the Cucu header is something they worked on in training so it wasn’t an accident. They purposely worked on getting crosses and overlapping FB in the box.

It shows he’s working on every match individually from a tactical perspective and not just vibes like last year.

30 minutes ago, El regreso said:

In his post match interview he said the Cucu header is something they worked on in training so it wasn’t an accident. They purposely worked on getting crosses and overlapping FB in the box.

It shows he’s working on every match individually from a tactical perspective and not just vibes like last year.

Cucarella had 2 other chances from almost exactly the same position, I expect that match last night saw us throw the most crosses into a box this season, or nearly the most. It was obviously a weakness Maresca had seen, overload the defence with late runs from outside the box.,

Could you imagine Marcos Alonso in this system, he gets double figures goals I would bet. 
He would be lethal with his head and left peg!

 

9 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Imagine if somebody made a bet on the table looking like that at this stage of the season.

3 hours ago, Deino said:

Whatever happens, this season is a positive one. Football looks good, players putting in the effort and having fun, no primadonnas just yet and owners not going around giving silly interviews

Iirc, the "heated" discussion at the beginning of the season on here was between top 4, top 6 and mid-table, and outside that then the manager is sh*t. Lol

Tbh, I think we will be top 4 but yes I'll admit, I've dreamt of overtaking, winning and imagining the look on the dippers faces as it happens.

Fkn PRICELESS 🤣 

* I really hope the owners have learnt from the recent past mistakes and dont mess about too much in January. 🤞

 

 

1 hour ago, El regreso said:

In his post match interview he said the Cucu header is something they worked on in training so it wasn’t an accident. They purposely worked on getting crosses and overlapping FB in the box.

It shows he’s working on every match individually from a tactical perspective and not just vibes like last year.

Again, I absolutely fkn love this.

A proper tactical coach. I know he's still relatively young for a head coach and still learning his trade, he will definitely get some wrong but I don't care tbh. The fact he's a proper tactical coach that takes this approach to games, I fkn love it. He's not stubborn and said he is always learning and trying to be better...ticks the best and biggest boxes for me personally, for what I would love in a head coach.

Edited December 16, 20241 yr by Simplymo

This is f**king hilarious 🤣 

 

https://www.instagram.com/share/_70n25m_K

This is weird narrative coming from Pep...he says Chelsea already has this squad. They do also. They have 60 players at their disposal. Use the youngsters. We are doing that. We have zero Premier League experience with most of our players that we have to use if injuries hit us. 

Our next one in line for Cucurella is Renato Veiga. A boy from Austrian league who is massively inexperienced. 

This bullsh*t story of our squad being massive is just plain stupidity. We are not chasing the League 5th time in a row. We are building our squad from young inexperienced unknown players. 

If they turn out to be good you have to give credit to the owner for this plan, the directors for finding great players and coaching for managing these youngsters right.

f**k off Pep. Mind your own business.

 

I love how Maresca decided before the match to bombard the Brentford box with crosses, and boy did it work. Jackson nearly got one early on and Cucu threatened a couple of times before getting the goal. 21 crosses in the first half meant we consistently got the ball in the Brentford box, causing chaos. It's totally different to how we've played so far and Brentford weren't prepared for it. 

To put it in perspective, we averaged 16 crosses per 90 mns in the 15 league games before last night. I love this adaptability that Enzo has brought in