Enzo Maresca did a nice cluster of media duties yesterday, speaking to various outlets about his first few weeks at Chelsea.
One thing that has been noted is the way he’s got Chelsea playing – not just passing out from the back, but pressing from the front when defending. Maresca himself noted this as a major alteration he was having to drill into his players:
“Everyone that watches us is focused on what we do with the ball, we build from behind. But I watched many, many games last season of Chelsea and I almost never saw man-to-man high pressing. They always wait a little bit. Since we started, we have decided to go man-to-man because it is our way, so aggressive. It’s a big change,” he commented in quotes picked up by the Athletic.
“If we played against Celtic with Leicester, we would have played better because I already had one year and they knew many things. But when you start, it is the price you pay at the beginning. I am 100 per cent sure we are on the right path.”
A tough learning curve
Of course pressing high up is a dangerous strategy, and especially dangerous when you’re not quite coordinated. As we’ve seen a few times in these opening friendlies, one player being a second slow on the uptake leaves huge gaps and an easy path for your opposition.
That could well be heavily exposed by Man City, who have years of drilling in their version. But Maresca won’t mind – it’s all about getting more time on the pitch showing his players how we wants them to operate before the season proper starts.
There are two weeks to go until we face City again in our opening league fixture. We wonder how confident he is of having this properly set up by then?