10 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Good news. We are 3rd heading into the last international break. 
 

Bad news. Just 3 points separate 3rd and 11th…
 

Begs the question, just how many points clear would we be from 4th if Maresca took more risks? United is understandable given history is against us (and we played like sh*t) but there was zero excuse today from Maresca to not having more attacking impetus. Arsenal were there for the taking. 
 

Position wise we are right on schedule but context wise we should be doing better. 

I would rather take things steady and build a good foundation this season before we start getting more attacking. Players are still making too many mistakes for that to be a possibility right now anyway to be quite honest. 

Just now, Remodez said:

I would rather take things steady and build a good foundation this season before we start getting more attacking. Players are still making too many mistakes for that to be a possibility right now anyway to be quite honest. 

Agreed, this squad isn't in a position to be freed from some defensive responsibility, it's a new very young squad. I think he's doing the right thing at the moment, building the confidence and cohesion.

3 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Teams are going to start marking Palmer every game now, especially the bigger teams. We might need to start exploring some new tactics in these games. One suggestion is playing Nkunku alongside Palmer. I think it will be more difficult to mark Nkunku and Palmer vs Palmer and Jackson. 

Teams know that Jackson isn't going to do much, so they can put an extra man on Palmer. In days like today, it's on Madueke, Neto and Jackson to do something to force Arsenal to take those extra players off Palmer, but they never did it. There were times when Palmer's entire area on the pitch had 4 Arsenal players around him. I don't know if Maresca spotted it, but he should have been screaming at the other players to step up and force Arsenal to take a few players off Palmer. Even Hazard would have struggled today.

He’s very stubborn when it comes the the starting 11.

Bloke is frustrating..... makes bad starting choices, and then seems to confound that by sticking with his mistakes, in some form of attempt to justify his initial selection.

1 minute ago, El regreso said:

He’s very stubborn when it comes the the starting 11.

For as long as I can remember, all CFC managers have a stubbornness about them. Going back to when Hollins would leave out Nevin and Hazard and then Mourinho would leave out Joey Cole. Also recall outrage at Sturridge not getting given proper chances and there have been a lot more in recent times but my old memory is better than recent memory!

But Maresca's insistence in keep playing Jackson AND leaving him on the pitch for so long when he is offering so little, is really starting to piss me off, so I can only wonder how Nkuku must be feeling.

10 minutes ago, El regreso said:

He’s very stubborn when it comes the the starting 11.

He is and far too cautious.

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

He is and far too cautious.

Benitez mk 2

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

He is and far too cautious.

Perhaps someone needs to tell him that his PL win rate with us is currently lower than Poch managed with us. Shame him into action 🙂 

Poch 18 wins out of 38 (47%) vs Enzo 5 out of 11 (45%). 

42 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Good news. We are 3rd heading into the last international break. 
 

Bad news. Just 3 points separate 3rd and 11th…
 

Begs the question, just how many points clear would we be from 4th if Maresca took more risks? United is understandable given history is against us (and we played like sh*t) but there was zero excuse today from Maresca to not having more attacking impetus. Arsenal were there for the taking. 
 

Position wise we are right on schedule but context wise we should be doing better. 

Being in the same position as Arsenal that is somehow seen as an epic team shows that Maresca's pragmatism is based on a real game plan.

We are a bit unlucky to concede the first goal in recent matches but the team keeps playing on, the trust that is given to the players is fair, those that didn't show enough as of yet need to keep working hard and there is no other way around it.

The draw against N.Forest hurt us more than these recent results but even there they scored first and we kept playing and took a point.

Real draws now to turn into real wins later, I'm fine with that.

14 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Perhaps someone needs to tell him that his PL win rate with us is currently lower than Poch managed with us. Shame him into action 🙂 

Poch 18 wins out of 38 (47%) vs Enzo 5 out of 11 (45%). 

Wasn't a fan of Pochettino, but so far, I've seen zero improvement from Maresca. If anything, I think the trajectory under Pochettino was looking better. We were much stronger against these tougher teams. He's made us sh*t at home again too, with a fully fit squad, something Pochettino never had.

If I had to rate Maresca right now, I would be at a 5 or maybe even a 4 out of 10. Average to below average.

Edited November 10, 20241 yr by Scott Harris

Disappointed today with Maresca. In previous interviews he mentioned that everyone will be given a chance and if you are not performing others will be given a chance due to our depth as a squad. Yet, today he played a half fit Palmer instead of Nkunku or Felix as a 10 and Madueke has being poor for a while now. What are the “reserves” supposed to think about this situation!?

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Wasn't a fan of Pochettino, but so far, I've seen zero improvement from Maresca. If anything, I think the trajectory under Pochettino was looking better. We were much stronger against these tougher teams. He's made us sh*t at home again too, with a fully fit squad, something Pochettino never had.

If I had to rate Maresca right now, I would be at a 5 or maybe even a 4 or out of 10. Average to below average.

I'd say he's 10/10 in press conferences and 6/10 overall. Several decisions I absolutely scratch my head at ... but relatively early days all the same ... getting an easy ride from the fanbase so far as well.

15 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Perhaps someone needs to tell him that his PL win rate with us is currently lower than Poch managed with us. Shame him into action 🙂 

Poch 18 wins out of 38 (47%) vs Enzo 5 out of 11 (45%). 

Hmm what is Potters?

Just now, Sexyfootball said:

I'd say he's 10/10 in press conferences and 6/10 overall. Several decisions I absolutely scratch my head at ... but relatively early days all the same ... getting an easy ride from the fanbase so far as well.

His words in press conferences make me think he is a bit of a bullsh*t artist though. He's rubbed me up the wrong way with a few of his comments. Like saying some players can't play the system, when almost the entire defence and midfield are struggling with it. Saying certain players will play if they perform and others won't if they don't perform, yet Madueke and Jackson have been mostly terrible and the likes of Nkunku and Felix do their bit in Europe and barely get any minutes in the league. I'm certain that if Sancho wasn't injured, Neto would be getting the same treatment too.

Funny season this. We're 3rd in the table, yet we've only won one of our last five league games and are 3 points off of 11th.

If the likes of Forest, Brighton and Bournemouth can beat the top three teams, there's no reason why we couldn't.

I can't believe that neither Nkunku nor Felix couldn't have offered anything today. I can't believe that Gusto (who's doing well defensively) is still being asked to do so much offensively when it's clearly not working.

Maresca needs to start mixing things up a little.

Get through this international break, and think that clears the international calendar until March (I may be wrong there).  Doesn't really feel like the season has properly started to me with 4 games on 2 weeks off flow.

Interested how Maresca uses his squad as the games come thick and fast through the new year.  Exciting time and let's see what we have.  I still think he's learning his best side, but there are some changes I would like to see.

Start James and Cucu when fit (and in the right positions!).  Probably rotate Noni a little more, and let's see how a Sancho - Palmer - Neto attack fares.  Better integrate Nkunku and Felix in the PL.  But, above all else, he has to address the GK and CBs - the three of them fill me with zero confidence.  I think we all recognize Sanchez is not good enough long-term, but we need to understand if Fofana and Colwill are also up to it.  Right now I have Fofana slightly better of those two, but want to see a lot more.

16 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Hmm what is Potters?

32% (7 out of 22). Lovely chap though 🙂 

17 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Hmm what is Potters?

Why? Maresca hasn't got the injury list Potter had for all of his time with us. Was 17 players unavailable at one point?

35 minutes ago, just said:

Why? Maresca hasn't got the injury list Potter had for all of his time with us. Was 17 players unavailable at one point?

Just curious. Poch had a long injury list too.

We do have a nack for not giving up in games even the Liverpool game we should of got a point.

Thats a really good quality to have, we just need to stop giving away f**king dumb back post goals.

This was happening under Poch too back post goals.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Good news. We are 3rd heading into the last international break. 
 

Bad news. Just 3 points separate 3rd and 11th…
 

Begs the question, just how many points clear would we be from 4th if Maresca took more risks? United is understandable given history is against us (and we played like sh*t) but there was zero excuse today from Maresca to not having more attacking impetus. Arsenal were there for the taking. 
 

Position wise we are right on schedule but context wise we should be doing better. 

I don’t think it’s fair the criticism. Arsenal are not at their best but they’ve been competing for the PL for three seasons, while we’ve just got a bunch of kids with changing coaches in the last two seasons. Understandable that we’re not ready to beat struggling top teams, but we’re still coming back into the game against Liverpool (even if we lost at the end), ManU and Arsenal today. If they keep learning and playing together, we’ll beat them soon enough.

3.6 Roentgens, not great, not terrible. 

Been a tough start to the league in terms of opponents, but will judge in another 6-8 games 

On 10/11/2024 at 05:56, Victor90 said:

Since the American takeover have we even managed to win a single game against Liverpool, Arsenal, or City? We always sh*t ourselves against the big teams, especially the title challengers. 

No.

Last time we beat Arsenal in any competition was in August 2021.

Last time we beat Man City in any competition was May 2021 (Champions League Final).

Last time we beat Liverpool in any competition was in March 2021.

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Wasn't a fan of Pochettino, but so far, I've seen zero improvement from Maresca. If anything, I think the trajectory under Pochettino was looking better.

I hope you are referring to the end of season when we were on a winning run?

Because Pochettino was one of the worst managers I’ve ever seen at Chelsea, we never looked like a team until Enzo got injured. He was piss poor and I’m so glad he’s gone.

I’m not sold on Maresca but I definitely prefer him to Poch. We look pretty good in attack most games, the defence definitely need sorting and i have big doubts on Maresca in that case, are we ever going to have a solid defence under him? I’m not sure.

As we’ve seen under Tuchel, you don’t need world class defenders to have a solid defence. If we still have this problem by end of the season then he’s not good enough.