The 2024-25 Premier League season is fast approaching, and after an underwhelming 23/24 season for Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino, the Blues will be hoping that Enzo Maresca can turn around their fortunes.
Who Is Enzo Maresca?
The 44-year-old began his coaching career at Serie B club Ascoli, where he was part of the non-playing staff.
In August 2020, he moved to Manchester City, where he was put in charge of the Elite Development squad.
After winning the Premier League 2 Title, Marseca was then appointed the Head Coach of Serie B side Parma.
Unfortunately, he could not get them promoted to Serie A, so he decided to move back to Manchester City as one of Pep Guardiola’s Assistants.
Leicester City looked like an interesting move for the Italian in June 2023, but it paid off, as the Foxes were back in the Premier League, after winning their second Championship title.
Style Of Play
As Maresca spent a year under Guardiola, he became a big admirer of his possession-based style of football.
Thus, he began to implement elements of the Spaniard’s philosophy of playing into his style of management.
He used the 4-2-3-1 formation to good effect with the Foxes, and midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was at the heart of it, scoring 12 goals and providing 14 assists.
Hence it is to no surprise that Chelsea signed him for £13 million.
And given the fact that Cole Palmer also worked with Maresca at Manchester City, this may turn out to be a deadly midfield quartet alongside Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo.
You would suspect that Caicedo will be the one to play alongside Romeo Lavia, who is traditionally a holding midfielder, and Fernandez and Palmer will push further up the pitch for Chelsea’s attacking play.
The most important thing for Maresca to do is to make sure he picks the correct personnel for the system he is going to deploy.
Ball Playing Keeper
Another area Maresca wants to improve is a ball-playing Goalkeeper. Although they are looking for one in the Transfer Market, Robert Sanchez seems to have caught the eye of the Italian.
Sanchez earned just three clean sheets in 16 appearances, as opposed to Đorđe Petrović, who kept five in 23 appearances.
The problem with Sanchez is that when he started off the season, he just looked nervous on the ball.
When you play a ball-playing keeper, the most important attribute is to be calm on the ball and be confident in picking the right pass.
Whenever the Spaniard played, his ball distribution was poor, particularly when Declan Rice scored the dramatic equalizer for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge last season.
However, if he can rediscover the form that he showed at Brighton & Hove Albion, then it makes sense to keep him as the number one.
It has also been revealed that the Blues have shown a particular interest in Real Madrid’s Andriy Lunin.
However, the Ukrainian has already revealed that he wants to stay at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Villareal’s Filip Jorgensen is also in the interest of the Blues.
Jorgensen made 38 appearances for the Yellow Submarine and kept six clean sheets.
The only issue is that he has had just one full season at the top level under his belt, so he needs time to develop.
What you don’t want, is for the same mistake to happen, where the club brought Nicholas Jackson from the La Liga side, but it took him a while to find his feet in Premier League football.
That’s why the club need to get someone who has more experience in playing at a higher level.
Diant Ramaj from Ajax has also been linked as a potential option.
At one stage, it looked as if Burnley’s James Trafford and Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale were linked as potential prospects for the club to bring in.
According to the Chelsea Chronicle, Maresca did show a particular interest in the Clarets Keeper, but the Club were no longer interested.
Trafford was also part of England’s preliminary squad for the European Championships but failed to cut the final 26.
Let’s see who Maresca and Chelsea decide to go for in terms of a new keeper.
Chalobah Future Uncertain?
The 25-year-old has strangely been omitted from the pre-season tour of the USA.
Trevoh Chalobah was one of Chelsea’s bright sparks of an underwhelming season where he made 17 appearances, hence it feels strange that he would be completely ignored by Maresca.
Let’s see what the future holds for the Chelsea Defender.
So this is what we have so far in terms of the upcoming season for Chelsea.
