Somewhere in the deep fog of his brain Maresca might finally have understood yesterday that constantly changing centre-back pairings is a really bad and stupid idea. Especially if that pairing consists of a rookie you signed as a left back, and your slowest, clunkiest, most out of form defender. And on top of that you also decide to change the entire midfield in front of them, to give your best midfielders a break. And then in front of them you play a front three barely out of their teens.

Really stunning management there. Will he dare pull such a stunt against Barcelona? Idiot.

Even as someone who thinks all our cbs are sh*t (backup quality at most) — except the one injured and the very green one — I agree that mucking with the D too much can be trouble.

On the other hand I suspect he’s just managing the squad too; like giving CL experience to very young players who would expect to get than upon signing with us.

I just find it hard to believe things would be drastically different with any other manager in charge when having to deal with this very unique roster.

We also seem to forget that our game winner, our star player, is out injured.

Edited November 6, 2025Nov 6 by acaeus

10 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I've said it so many times at this point. Change his nationality to English and his name to Dave and he isn't getting in this team.

We have 100m+ reason for him to be in the team

Edited November 6, 2025Nov 6 by Bob stark

5 hours ago, Dr. Socrates said:

Somewhere in the deep fog of his brain Maresca might finally have understood yesterday that constantly changing centre-back pairings is a really bad and stupid idea. Especially if that pairing consists of a rookie you signed as a left back, and your slowest, clunkiest, most out of form defender. And on top of that you also decide to change the entire midfield in front of them, to give your best midfielders a break. And then in front of them you play a front three barely out of their teens.

Really stunning management there. Will he dare pull such a stunt against Barcelona? Idiot.

The difference between the way we play in big matches vs the way we play against lesser teams is night and day. For some reason we are terrible in transition against lesser opposition and very well organised in big matches. Brugge were robbed off a win last night by Anthony Taylor and with Palmer back do not be surprised if Maresca plays a blinder and puts a ton past Barcelona. They are even worse in transition and that suicidal high line has every team create lots of chances against them.

But other than that I agree with you in every single aspect. The center back area must be the priority if the board want to spend big again and the rotation must stop at some point. Even I came up with a sh*t line-up in this thread before the match, but truth is that it is not the Conference League anymore. When both fully fit, Fofana and Badiashile must be the center back pairing.

12 hours ago, Chelsger said:

His sh*t tinkering and playing second string players is costing us millions potentially.

He treated this game with disrespect and got caught out again. He’s not good enough of a manager to try those things, I hate him.

"Tinkering" isn't the right word for what he does every game. "Dismantling and total reconstruction" is a better description of what he choses to do. You cannot build an organised, solid, effective back four by constantly changing it for each match. Everybody who follows football knows it. And I'm certain he does too, but he is so stubborn he refuses to accept he is getting it wrong and change his approach.

1 hour ago, petre ispirescu said:

The difference between the way we play in big matches vs the way we play against lesser teams is night and day. For some reason we are terrible in transition against lesser opposition and very well organised in big matches. Brugge were robbed off a win last night by Anthony Taylor and with Palmer back do not be surprised if Maresca plays a blinder and puts a ton past Barcelona. They are even worse in transition and that suicidal high line has every team create lots of chances against them.

But other than that I agree with you in every single aspect. The center back area must be the priority if the board want to spend big again and the rotation must stop at some point. Even I came up with a sh*t line-up in this thread before the match, but truth is that it is not the Conference League anymore. When both fully fit, Fofana and Badiashile must be the center back pairing.

Solid? We conceded

2.2 xG vs Bayern

1.9 xG vs Pool

1.8 xG vs United

4 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Solid? We conceded

2.2 xG vs Bayern

1.9 xG vs Pool

1.8 xG vs United

Glad that his controlled possession based football can be seen to be so effective. Looking at that my take away is our xG : xGA ratio is 5:9. Been out performed by almost twice as many teams . Boring toothless football

Having reflected on the result and took into the account factors such as the travel and the mad flight schedule to Azerbaijan, early injury to Lavia and the crazy fact of the ball only being in play for 46 minutes during the game, its not the worst result in the world.

Baffling that we only had 7 minutes added on in the game.

I’ve been looking after the kids all weekend while my wife is away. I’m knackered.

Maresca - don’t annoy me by losing or giving me a poor performance. I’m not the mood.