Most coaches in the PL are better than Maresca.

9 minutes ago, RMH said:

Most coaches in the PL are better than Maresca.

Most coaches in the PL are more experienced than Maresca.

I think the biggest thing holding Maresca back is his inability to adapt, which again likely goes back to his inexperience. Or it could be stubbornness given we have seen what this side is capable of when it plays quick and forward/wide vs trying to build through the middle against sides that have figured it out.

Just as it's daft to think yesterday's performance is indicative of how we will perform all season, it was equally daft for us to believe the one-off cwc final was going to be the the way we would play all season.

But , that cwc final was exceptional and out of character with our previous games, whereas yesterday was the sort of performance that was churned out all last season.

Fans on West Ham fan TV on Saturday after their Sunderland defeat were worrying about how many goals we'll put past them on Friday..

They might be a bit more optimistic now, we should win though, but I wouldn't be surprised if we struggled. Still, early days .

Come on you BLUES!

Yesterday's performance was pretty much everything I didn't want to see in our opening game of the season....well, that and just completely folding and somehow getting battered. We just looked hopeless, never looked like scoring.

No point panicking yet, but it's immediately made me a lot more apprehensive going forward. It's only the 2nd game, but we need a good win against West Ham. They're going to be embarrassed by that 3-0 defeat to Sunderland too. It's really annoying that we are on the backfoot after the first round of fixtures.

7 hours ago, RMH said:

We've got a good team this season, I think we still need some better goalkeeper and a senior CB, but this team with a better, more experienced coach, could be easily playing better football and comfortably getting top 3. As it is, the board has decided to go for inexperience in players and coaching staff, so we get this. Unfortunately, this is bad for the development of the players, who need a proper coach to achieve the top of their potential. With Maresca, they'll end up not reaching their very best.

I don’t necessarily think it’s down to his experience or shortage of, and I actually have a theory he’s a good coach, if you want serving up what we’re getting. For example, he’s done a very good job of coaching Palmer to be barely 50% as good as he can be. He’s managed to successfully coach and employ his less than entertaining style of football with these mainly talented young players. He even showed he could spectacularly stitch up PSG if he really felt like it. But sadly that is absolutely not something he’s prepared to do against anyone else, ever.

3 hours ago, RMH said:

Most coaches in the PL are better than Maresca.

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Most coaches in the PL are more experienced than Maresca.

I think the biggest thing holding Maresca back is his inability to adapt, which again likely goes back to his inexperience. Or it could be stubbornness given we have seen what this side is capable of when it plays quick and forward/wide vs trying to build through the middle against sides that have figured it out.

Yeah I sort of agree with with Sconnie here RMH.

I still have my doubts if Maresca will develop to the level we need. However he did make subtle tweaks along the way to win the knock out club world cup games to get some grace from me.

I intend to give him the season, but I need to see him develop a way to break low blocks, be willing to play more attackers to do so/turn draws in to wins with Delap and Pedro working together, and figure out solutions to injuries.

His presser about just losing Colwill was bad imo. It's ok for you or your to through Badiashile and fofana under the bus but he cannot that, nor should one injury cause a panic to him.

Imagine if robbie had that attitude in 2012 without JT and Brana.

Don't speak Maresca, just work and make it work.

Almost exactly a year on from our last home game against Palace , it's another draw. . Let's hope we get improvement, and not stagnation this season. Especially with the added burden of midweek CL games.. West Ham then Fulham should be beatable if we intend to challenge for top 4 again, let alone for anything else

Come on you BLUES !!

8 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Almost exactly a year on from our last home game against Palace , it's another draw. . Let's hope we get improvement, and not stagnation this season. Especially with the added burden of midweek CL games.. West Ham then Fulham should be beatable if we intend to challenge for top 4 again, let alone for anything else

Come on you BLUES !!

We do have more tools, and better ones, to break down low blocks. We just need to work them in together.

I dont believe that a side with Delap, Pedro, Palmer, Estevao and Caicedo cannot find a way to break through most low blocks.

We are not beating West Ham. They will setup exactly like Palace and we will look clueless going forward. Bowen on the break.

If you are Potter you lost your first game 3-0 do you think he will come out and play knowing we can hurt him with the players we have.

15 minutes ago, El regreso said:

We are not beating West Ham. They will setup exactly like Palace and we will look clueless going forward. Bowen on the break.

If you are Potter you lost your first game 3-0 do you think he will come out and play knowing we can hurt him with the players we have.

Sometimes it takes one of these very expensive footballers to earn their pay against far less expensive footballer they play against. While I agree tactics play a big part in the modern game, the big moneys still go for the few players who can actually influence in big matches.

J.Pedro, despite of what he did at the WCC, is still a newcomer learning the system -- same for Delap. Estevao isn't just a newcomer, but also still a 18yo kid who just moved from a much weaker league.

So afraid that we are still very much dependent on Cole at this moment. I sure hope other players will step up, but I was also afraid of the short break and shorter preseason: it usually does not bode well for the initial games.

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Yeah I sort of agree with with Sconnie here RMH.

I still have my doubts if Maresca will develop to the level we need. However he did make subtle tweaks along the way to win the knock out club world cup games to get some grace from me.

I intend to give him the season, but I need to see him develop a way to break low blocks, be willing to play more attackers to do so/turn draws in to wins with Delap and Pedro working together, and figure out solutions to injuries.

His presser about just losing Colwill was bad imo. It's ok for you or your to through Badiashile and fofana under the bus but he cannot that, nor should one injury cause a panic to him.

Imagine if robbie had that attitude in 2012 without JT and Brana.

Don't speak Maresca, just work and make it work.

Fair enough. I don’t think that being inexperienced and being an average coach are mutually exclusive. He’s inexperience and hasn’t learned sh*t from last season, making him a bad coach, especially for these young players who need someone that can teach them to reach their full potential.

And, I don’t think the inexperience card should be played. It’s not like he doesn’t know the English game, he started at the City academy, moved to Leicester and has now one season in the PL, but he should have known the PL from his earlier years and should know better than Conte or Tuchel how the PL teams play. Glassner or Iraola were new to the PL and immediately had a positive impact. Maresca, knowing the English game and the physicality of the PL, has had a negative impact on many of our better players.

Edited August 18, 2025Aug 18 by RMH

6 minutes ago, RMH said:

Fair enough. I don’t think that being inexperienced and being an average coach are mutually exclusive. He’s inexperience and hasn’t learned sh*t from last season, making him a bad coach, especially for these young players who need someone that can teach them to reach their full potential.

And, I don’t think the inexperience card should be played. It’s not like he doesn’t know the English game, he started at the City academy, moved to Leicester and has now one season in the PL, but he should have known the PL from his earlier years and should know better than Conte or Tuchel how the PL teams play. Glassner or Iraola were new to the PL and immediately had a positive impact. Maresca, knowing the English game and the physicality of the PL, has had a negative impact on many of our better players.

I still have a lot of question marks about him, and agree with a lot of that.

On 15/08/2025 at 03:26, Deino said:

Interesting perspective at least

It took him just 4 days to be wrong lol. Formations mean nothing and analysis is meaningless if it doesn't account for game state.

On Enzo, inexperience is not the issue. It's stubbornness and a belief he is always right. Present-day Conte and Mourinho get mocked for it but Maresca is just as headstrong despite an iota of the success.

7 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

It took him just 4 days to be wrong lol. Formations mean nothing and analysis is meaningless if it doesn't account for game state.

On Enzo, inexperience is not the issue. It's stubbornness and a belief he is always right. Present-day Conte and Mourinho get mocked for it but Maresca is just as headstrong despite an iota of the success.

The problem with this kind analysis is that they don't really talk about how the opp will defend against it.

I have warned people about it but people were unhappy. 😂😂

Edited August 19, 2025Aug 19 by Bob stark

13 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Yesterday's performance was pretty much everything I didn't want to see in our opening game of the season....well, that and just completely folding and somehow getting battered. We just looked hopeless, never looked like scoring.

No point panicking yet, but it's immediately made me a lot more apprehensive going forward. It's only the 2nd game, but we need a good win against West Ham. They're going to be embarrassed by that 3-0 defeat to Sunderland too. It's really annoying that we are on the backfoot after the first round of fixtures.

Summed up perfectly.

CWC final, I was like "what the hell am i seeing?"

Vs West Ham it was like "oh here we go again". I knew we weren't scoring from the 30th minute.

9 hours ago, El regreso said:

We are not beating West Ham. They will setup exactly like Palace and we will look clueless going forward. Bowen on the break.

If you are Potter you lost your first game 3-0 do you think he will come out and play knowing we can hurt him with the players we have.

I think we are. They can setup like Palace for sure but are on a pretty low atm. Palace is really on song now. Maresca's talked about the setup they have with 3 men d-line and sitting deep and compact. It is a completely different thing than against PSG where you are man v man all the time and we had tons of space to operate. If we setup and play like Liverpool against Palace I think they've scored 4 goals. And look at Liverpools goals. Frimpongs goal is a fluke... We had Acheampong and Gittens as our starters for this one, no Colwill or Tosin. We could and should have scored one but didn't.

Anyway Premier League is different to any other competition in the world. Every club will fight to death and will setup just to stop us with great quality players and coaches. And that is every week. That is just how it has become. I think personally European games are much more enjoyable to watch in general. All teams that are there are not war-planning every game, they are proud of their style of football and will go all out with that given style. In Prem they can and will play according to the opponent and many games are just like we saw against Palace. Our team in a couple of years will be much more ready in these games than now especially after the weird and long summer.

About Maresca, I don't think it is about stubbornness. 3diamond3 is fine.

You don't need to be a genius to see where the space is. The key is how, when and more importantly who will occupy that space.

On the right. Enzo was awful, there is nothing to talk about. Neto on the ball game is just limited.

On the left, Cucu need to time his run better. Too often, he was just running around. He need to help create angle for passing towards gittens/Palmer. Gittens simply need to play better.

And lastly jp need to play better, st job is not just about scoring. You need to be able to receive the ball to allow your team to go up and attack.

This is why I said after the 1st half I said either simply jus play better or bring estevao n santos. It is not about gittens, he is just a kid. It is about Neto. Santos because Enzo was awful.

Edited August 19, 2025Aug 19 by Bob stark

Lastly manager usually doesn't like to change too much offensively in term of structure. You can move around offensively.

Defense on the other hand is completely different. Manager will quickly make changes if you defend wrongly.

Said it a year ago, send a media man into all press conferences. Pretend Maresca doesn’t speak English anymore or something. He does far more harm than good every time he opens his mouth.

4 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Said it a year ago, send a media man into all press conferences. Pretend Maresca doesn’t speak English anymore or something. He does far more harm than good every time he opens his mouth.

Can we also send a manager man into all the matches and a training man into all the training whilst we’re at it? He does far more harm than good every time he sets the side up or injures them in training.

12 hours ago, El regreso said:

We are not beating West Ham. They will setup exactly like Palace and we will look clueless going forward. Bowen on the break.

If you are Potter you lost your first game 3-0 do you think he will come out and play knowing we can hurt him with the players we have.

I don't believe West Ham are able to defend in the same way to be honest and I'm not sure Potter would set his team up to do that.

2 hours ago, Remodez said:

I don't believe West Ham are able to defend in the same way to be honest and I'm not sure Potter would set his team up to do that.

If we win I run down the kings road with my YMCA 🥎 warmers!!

3 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Said it a year ago, send a media man into all press conferences. Pretend Maresca doesn’t speak English anymore or something. He does far more harm than good every time he opens his mouth.

I'm happy to translate for him. "Eravamo un sacco di merda, punto".

My expectations this season is the same as last season top 4. Maybe a more comfortable top 4 finish.

So not sure 1 points is that bad. United lost, villa n Newcastle drew, Spud won but it was against newly peomoted team so it is as expected. Arse, city, pool won but it doesn't matter.