6 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

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.

On this vein @Mod, when you post Maresca conference videos they should come with the same disclaimer that you did for Poch, only for Maresca we can call them Pizzelles, an Italian Waffle cookie.

Also worth remembering what our visiting Leicester fans told us about Maresca. They basically said he is rigid and stubborn, and had confrontations with their fans when they were unhappy he showed no flexibility and stuck with his favorites.

So I don't think things will change with him, he has decided, for better or worse, Jackson, Madueke, Palmer, Caicedo, Gusto and Sanchez are his guys. In some cases qe are all fully on board with that, I doubt anyone on here thinks Caicedo and Palmer should not be key players.

However Jackson, Madueke, Gusto and Sanchez have, in my opinion, been subpar at best for a lot of this season and he will pick them no matter how poor they are, how many mistakes they make, and he won't give look in to player he has taken a dislike to, or perhaps the board have told him not to play in some cases, like Carney, Nkunku, Felix etc.

I really hope it pays off and I end up with egg on my face (won't be the first time, won't be the last), however I just dont think he has guts to back up his words to the press, and is stubborn in a bad way.

I just find playing players like Madueke and Jackson all the time, players who have a role here but not as "must starts every league game", risking a barley fit Palmer and making play a full game, and refusing to incorporate talents like Carney, Felix and Nkunku, is just unforgivable.

Almost like those supposed pity 9 minutes plus stoppage time for Nkunku vs Bournemouth where he grabbed the winner now has Maresca thinking "sh*t that makes me look bad for not using him more, ok now he gets 2 minutes".

Edited November 11, 20241 yr by axman2526

About Maresca's rigidity.. I don't feel that as the main trait of him. I haven't felt that at all. I think he has created the sandbox he needs to do in terms of what the culture is inside the squad. It is a massively tough job but he has navigated that well.

In terms of playing style we are nothing like I thought he would play. We are basically a tweaked Pochettino side. Possession is not everything for us which is very good to see. 

I think Enzo was rigid with Leicester in terms of playing style because it fit the bill there. It worked didn't it. They got promoted. 

Our squad is different. I think many of our players need the freedom to express themselves. I think Enzo is giving that to them without compromising the results too much. 

Scoring helps so much. Play however, if you score you give yourself a chance to win. By winning no one really cares how you did that. 

I don’t think he’s rigid just stubborn. Rigid is not changing the system no matter what and we have seen that he has changed the system multiple times already.

I don't even think it's the system that needs to change, it's the fact that he's playing people who haven't warranted keeping their place. I've gotta assume that even he doesn't think Nkunku is a striker because as I've said before, I believe that behind Palmer he's our best attacker and the lad can hardly get any minutes. Unfortunately there is no other option up top than to play Jackson, but Nkunku LW and Neto RW would be a much better option in my opinion.

Just said it in the match thread but the way our defence keeps being drawn across the box to the ball leaveing an open meadow for opposing players to trot into and score is too regular and problematic. Maresca needs to fix this. James will help fix this, pretty miffed he didnt start yesterday. 

Too slow with subs yesterday. 

Bored of seeing a quick break happen and our winger is one on one with their full back just for them to hold onto the ball and recycle possession to the full back. 

12 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Bored of seeing a quick break happen and our winger is one on one with their full back just for them to hold onto the ball and recycle possession to the full back. 

So often though, only Jackson is in the middle and that's as good as no-one being there. We still need a PROPER No.9 who can put his head on a cross.

 

13 minutes ago, Nibs said:

So often though, only Jackson is in the middle and that's as good as no-one being there. We still need a PROPER No.9 who can put his head on a cross.

 

I'm not sure why we're so in love with the idea of heading the ball. City never looked for a big man to head the ball with Aguero, Liverpool didn't with Suarez. If we want to play this beautiful progressive game like we brought Maresca in for we should be looking to keep the ball on the ground. 

16 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. 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.

We really weren't. Where's this rewriting of history with Poch coming from?

Edited November 11, 20241 yr by Argo

 

9 hours ago, axman2526 said:

On this vein @Mod, when you post Maresca conference videos they should come with the same disclaimer that you did for Poch, only for Maresca we can call them Pizzelles, an Italian Waffle cookie.

Errrr.....but I can understand Maresca when he speaks. Poch was hard work.

18 minutes ago, Argo said:

We really weren't. Where's this rewriting of history with Poch coming from?

It's not a rewriting of history. We were on an upward trajectory from where we were the season before and the start of the season, results prove that. I don't think Maresca has improved on that at all so far. Off the ball, we are as bad if not worse than ever, attacking is no better, home record has dipped again. Injuries have cleared up, so that shouldn't hold us back anymore, but it's not improved us at all. Maresca has more options than Pochettino had, but he's not made use of them.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

It's not a rewriting of history. We were on an upward trajectory from where we were the season before and the start of the season, results prove that. I don't think Maresca has improved on that at all so far. Off the ball, we are as bad if not worse than ever, attacking is no better, home record has dipped again. Injuries have cleared up, so that shouldn't hold us back anymore, but it's not improved us at all. Maresca has more options than Pochettino had, but he's not made use of them.

If it weren't for Nunez when we played Liverpool away I dread to think what the score would have been, and we had our biggest ever defeat against Arsenal, lost a final against half an academy side. He wasn't stronger against the big teams, like atall.

The "upward trajectory" came against teams on the beach when our season was done. As we're seeing with Palace this season a run like that means f**k all.

54 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

I'm not sure why we're so in love with the idea of heading the ball. City never looked for a big man to head the ball with Aguero, Liverpool didn't with Suarez. If we want to play this beautiful progressive game like we brought Maresca in for we should be looking to keep the ball on the ground. 

You can keep the ball on the ground but it won't make a whole lot of difference if Jackson is on the end of it!

I agree, and think the No 9 who was a great header of the ball is a thing of the past. But it is still a handy option. All of Arsenals set-pieces look like causing us problems yesterday but we haven't even got defenders who look that threatening now. We used to have JT, Ivan, Cahill, even Silva, but have little threat now. When Gusto is on the end of one of your best chances and he fails miserably, it says a lot.

 

Good article from Michael Cox about how our offside trap is easy to exploit and has repeatedly cost us goals this season:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5912943/2024/11/11/chelsea-pellegrini-offside-trap-maresca/

(Google 'twelve foot ladder' for a proxy)

38 minutes ago, Nibs said:

You can keep the ball on the ground but it won't make a whole lot of difference if Jackson is on the end of it!

I agree, and think the No 9 who was a great header of the ball is a thing of the past. But it is still a handy option. All of Arsenals set-pieces look like causing us problems yesterday but we haven't even got defenders who look that threatening now. We used to have JT, Ivan, Cahill, even Silva, but have little threat now. When Gusto is on the end of one of your best chances and he fails miserably, it says a lot.

 

James would have scored and buried thegoalkeeper and defender in doing so yesterday. I like Gusto, but he needs to get a bit more solid and handy with his elbows. 

13 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

Good article from Michael Cox about how our offside trap is easy to exploit and has repeatedly cost us goals this season:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5912943/2024/11/11/chelsea-pellegrini-offside-trap-maresca/

(Google 'twelve foot ladder' for a proxy)

Took a while for Liverpool under Klopp to master. Essentially why he doesn't like shifting away from a Fofana+Colwill partnership. 

This is criminal!!!

 

6 minutes ago, El regreso said:

This is criminal!!!

 

Didn't we have an exact carbon copy of that the other week! Was it the Servette game?

8 minutes ago, Mod said:

Didn't we have an exact carbon copy of that the other week! Was it the Servette game?

Yep and the Noah game and several other games. It’s starting to become ridiculous that we can’t defend the back post based on where the cross comes from.

It happened under Poch too.

Just now, El regreso said:

Yep and the Noah game and several other games. It’s starting to become ridiculous that we can’t defend the back post based on where the cross comes from.

It happened under Poch too.

Yep! I had to double take that picture as I thought it was the same one posted after that game! It's almost identical!

Was basically the same goal we conceded against them last season for their equaliser as I recall?

1 minute ago, PloKoon13 said:

Was basically the same goal we conceded against them last season for their equaliser as I recall?

Yep same goal as last season.

Chelsea are actively scouting, monitoring and starting some contacts for Centre backs in Europe. It’s a position they are really looking at. Could be January or next summer. Thomas Araujo is a player they “love” (@FabrizioRomano) #CFC

I think Maresca is trying to be too smart and tweaked the system in a negative way. Gusto has to play his role as a traditional full back rather than roam into midfield and no 10 as he is terrible at it. Cucurella was doing a better job coming into midfield if need be. 
Also, for the love of God rest Jackson and Madueke for a couple of games. I am sure that Nkunku or Felix will not be worse than them. It was Felix’s birthday yesterday and he got no minutes despite Palmer being half fit and Jackson falling all over the place.