There hasn’t been a huge anti-Enzo Maresca move from Chelsea fans, and it feels like a large part of that is just down to apathy. Managers have been cycled through so quickly in the last couple of years and debates have raged back and forth about each of them, so there just doesn’t seem much appetite to argue about the situation given we have barely finished arguing about Mauricio Pochettino.
But some pundits from outside the club are looking at the situation with fresh eyes, and they can’t believe what they’re seeing in the dugout.
Stan Collymore’s column for Caught Offside was pretty forthright in it it’s take on the situation. He doesn’t think Maresca is going to survive the vast expectations and difficult situation he’s putting himself into:
“The Blues need to get lots of very good results very early if they want to get into Europe, and by that I mean the Europa League,” Collymore wrote.
“I would be absolutely astounded if, when we get to Christmas, there aren’t rumblings about Maresca’s position already because it’s a young, fickle, rookie group.
“For me, it’s an underwhelming appointment, the club should have stuck with Poch, and I get the feeling that come November/December time, we’ll be having another conversation about Chelsea changing their manager again.”
Another huge risk
He’s spot on with most of that, and it echoes what a lot of Blues fans have said in recent weeks. Everybody is going to give the new guy a chance, but their frustrations right now are aimed as much at the people picking the managers as with the managers themselves.
As always however, the summer is a time of endless optimism, and we’re sure there will be plenty of excitement and support when the big kick off comes along.
Any critic of the Maresca appointment has got to do two things and Collymore does neither.
First, if you claim Poch should have stayed then you have to confront the falling out he had with the club leadership and address how you think all parties could have worked together through another season. Poch was clearly unhappy about the squad he’d been given and the leadership were clearly unwillingly to sanction the changes he wanted. Meanwhile, the leadership were unhappy that he wasn’t playing the style they wanted (possession-based with successful build out from the back) and they were irked that he was regularly dropping hints in the press about his displeasure at the hand he’d been dealt and his lack of power in player recruitment. It’s simply not good enough to say, “Poch should have stayed” without addressing how the deteriorating relationship would have continued to fester (almost certainly affecting the players at some point).
Secondly, you can’t dismiss Maresca simply because he’s got a short track record without looking at his tactics and how, or if, they suit Chelsea’s squad. Mikel Arteta didn’t have much of a managerial track record either when he took over Arsenal and it’s hard to argue that his was a poor appointment. There are several really well done videos out in the last week that take a close look at Maresca’s tactical preferences (he favours a 4-3-3 that morphs into a 3-2-2-3 in possession) and they largely conclude that it’s a decent fit for Chelsea’s personnel (with a few notable exceptions like our lack of a keeper whose really good with the ball at his feet).
So no, Collymore does not deserve to be taken seriously just because he’s a former player. In this case he’s just another bloviating pundit offering a hot take that’s little more than hot air.