Why Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea Should Be Feared
As one of Pep's many disciples - Enzo Maresca has joined Chelsea with a weight of expectation hanging over his head after successive poor seasons. Adam Clery discusses how he'll set up...
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00:00Hello, everybody, Adam Cleary from 442, don't know why I'm speaking like this, and we're
00:08finally doing the Enzo Moresca at Chelsea What Does That Mean video.
00:12Yeah, like, sorry, I know, we joined absolutely ages ago and we have had loads of requests
00:16of like, can you please explain whether this is good or bad, but the Euros was on, and
00:21I have but one brain.
00:22But yes, anyway, here we are, after a frankly ridiculous footballing journey that's seen
00:26him work with Pellegrini, Guardiola, Zidane, Di Zerbi, Ancelotti and Gary Megson for some
00:34reason.
00:35Todd Bowley's big mad yee-haw Emporium identified him as the man to take over after a stunning
00:40campaign with Leicester City.
00:43He's one of the most exciting new managers in football, he's got an incisive and possession
00:47based brand of high intensity football, but will that work at Chelsea FC?
00:54Well, let's Chelsea FC.
01:01Right, don't worry, that is my jokes quota entirely filled for the video already, so
01:04to understand what Moresca's Chelsea is going to look like, it's probably important to look
01:08at Moresca's Leicester City.
01:10So a few things to note, they were very high intensity, one of the hardest working teams
01:14in the league, they were a possession side, they dominated having the ball, and they also
01:19looked to win it back really quickly in the opposition's half when they lost it.
01:24Now if you haven't already, you're probably going to hear a lot about them using a box
01:27midfield with one of the defenders so they can get this thing going and dominating possession,
01:31hell that's really good for probably Mark Kukerea, but one of the most interesting things
01:34about them is how they use the goalkeeper.
01:37One of the first things Moresca did when he got to Leicester was he looked at his goalkeeping
01:41situation, saw Danny's Iverson and Ward, who are both experienced Premier League goalkeepers,
01:46the kind of goalie you probably want when you're dropping down a division, and went
01:49err, no.
01:51So he went out and he brought in this man, Mads Hermansen, who despite being way less
01:55experienced and only I think about 23 at the time, was a light years ahead of the pair
01:59of them for having the ball at his feet.
02:02And what that enabled Leicester City to do was, yes of course they could go to the box
02:06midfield if they really wanted to and have that like Man City style 3-4-3 system where
02:12you can push everybody up and you have this whole thing going on.
02:15Now most teams, including Leicester by the way, tend to press you in a 4-4-2 shape, which
02:20is a revert back into that and that's how they chase down the ball, so obviously you've
02:24got a man advantage here if that's what you're doing.
02:27But if, as can quite often happen, a team decides to go for a man-for-man press instead,
02:32and let's say they line up with a 4-3-3, they allow all of their attackers to take a man
02:36each, Leicester can now bring the goalkeeper into that line, yes it looks insane, but that's
02:43what they do and all of a sudden that 3-3-3 becomes a 4-3-3.
02:47And the reason why you go out and you get a goalkeeper who's fantastic with the ball
02:51at his feet is because if you did this with Danny Ward or Danny Iverson, no offence lads,
02:56you'd get murdered.
02:58Leicester's goalkeeper was every bit as good on the ball as everybody else in this newly
03:02formed back four, he was patient with it, he wouldn't get panicked, he could play through
03:06the press, he could play over the top, he could play long, he was a really valuable
03:10weapon for them to have when they had the ball at the back.
03:12And this put any opposition team that tried to press the man-for-man in a really difficult
03:16position because either they had to give that up and come up with a whole new way of pressing
03:20them on the fly, or they would commit yet another player forward to go 4-4-4 here, leaving
03:26Leicester with an entirely man-for-man front three at the other end.
03:31And also, just as a really simple mathematic equation, if you've got a goalkeeper who's
03:35going to play as an outfield player, and the opposition doesn't because nobody does, then
03:40you effectively make the game of football 11 v 10.
03:44Now Chelsea fans, I will leave it up to you to decide whether you think Dore Petrovic
03:49or Robert Sanchez are capable of playing this bananas role at Premier League level, but
03:55while I'm not saying I think they'll go out and spend big money on a goalkeeper, I am
04:00thinking it very loudly.
04:02Actually, in terms of working out which members of the current Chelsea squad are going to
04:05fit a Maresca style system, Chelsea are actually pretty well equipped already.
04:10We know he likes to invert a full-back, and Marc Cougaray was doing that brilliantly towards
04:14the end of last season.
04:15Levi Caldwell is a shoo-in, they've gone out and bought Tosin, who fits this really well.
04:19And if Rhys James is ever put into a Lazarus pit and returned to this mortal realm, he'd
04:25be great too.
04:26He was also using Harry Winks to great effect at Leicester, which means he doesn't necessarily
04:30want a defensive number six or a destroyer of moves, he wants someone who can receive
04:34the ball under pressure and progress it up the pitch, and that is probably the best description
04:39of Moises Caicedo you could ever come up with.
04:41With, of course, the added bonus that he can also absolutely smash into you.
04:45But it's as we get up into this area of the pitch and the five attackers that things get
04:49particularly interesting, because the one major, major, major signing Chelsea have already
04:52gone out and made is for Kieran Dewsbury-Hall.
04:55The simplest way to explain what Maresca wanted his Leicester team to do in the final third
05:00was he wanted wide players to stay wide, to stretch the defence out that way, and a centre
05:05forward who would make runs in behind to stretch them out the other way.
05:10The logic for which is fairly simple, because either the defence will remain compact and
05:15hold its shape, in which case you're not then marking these players, you're giving them
05:19room to play in, or, as is more common because of literally human instinct, they will go
05:24out to mark those players and will get stretched all the way across the pitch.
05:28And if I was ever going to get a catchphrase to put on a t-shirt, it would say this, when
05:32a defence is stretched, it is f***ed.
05:35And it was in those stretched moments that Kieran Dewsbury-Hall absolutely thrived.
05:4012 goals, 14 assists, he was undoubtedly the star of this Leicester City team because the
05:46way they would move defences around gave him space to play in.
05:49This is his seasonal heat map from that championship campaign, and you will see he is not that
05:54bothered at all about dropping back to receive the ball along with the number six or off
05:59the defence.
06:00He doesn't like to get it, he doesn't usually receive it until he's in the opposition half,
06:04or more specifically, the final third.
06:06Like, genuinely, if you are wanting attacking output from a number eight, this just bloom
06:11of red in this part of the pitch is absolutely beautiful.
06:15How that worked in reality was when Leicester moved up the pitch, Dewsbury-Hall's job was
06:19to get up around the centre forward to operate as a number 10.
06:23With the defence stretched across the pitch, and usually Vardy pulling the centre backs
06:26towards their own goal, this gave him little pockets of space between that line and the
06:31midfield where he could get on it, really quickly turn and find either runs from players
06:35coming from the outside, Vardy himself, or occasionally support from his other, his friend
06:41in the midfield.
06:42Now that understandably gets you 14 assists across the season, but what gets you 12 goals
06:46is because your other job is to identify little breaks in that space and seize opportunities
06:52to get up as a second centre forward.
06:55Whether that's arriving late into the box to get on to the end of a cross that a player
06:58taking advantage of the space has been able to put in, or occasionally, if you play someone
07:02in into the channel, he can be there to receive a neat little cutback.
07:05It's just not really any surprise whatsoever that was the first major bit of business Maresca
07:10did, because it's not an overly complex role, but it's such a demanding one.
07:15You need to know somebody is going to have the engine to go to the 10 position to get
07:19in as a second striker, and then get back into his defensive block when you lose the
07:24ball.
07:25And Dewsbury Hall proved last season he could do that.
07:28And that is actually the other vital part of Dewsbury Hall's job, because I said before,
07:31a lot of teams will revert into a 4-4-2 out of possession, and Leicester absolutely were
07:37doing that.
07:38Dewsbury Hall would push up alongside Vardy, they would lead the press.
07:41What Leicester would look to do is sort of like force the opposition into one half of
07:45the pitch, and then sort of like manoeuvre around and box them in, so they're treating
07:49the touchline as like some impenetrable wall behind them.
07:52Like a lot of teams do it, in fairness, but Leicester were particularly effective at it.
07:55Like Dewsbury Hall and Vardy, they would close down the centre-backs, invite the ball to
07:59go out to a full-back, and when it did, they would then cut off the options back in field
08:04for them, and the entire team would then, as a result, sort of shuffle up and move over
08:09to really congest all the area that's then in front of that player.
08:13And if they did switch it really long, they had the work rate, the energy, they had the
08:17discipline to then move all the way back across as a unit and do the whole thing again.
08:22And I think, and this might be worded slightly weird, the best thing about Leicester's
08:25season last season, and how it relates to Chelsea's season this season, is that they
08:30weren't like the most at doing anything, really, but they were usually the most effective.
08:36Like take this, for example, when it comes to forcing high turnovers, right, they were
08:40third in the league for what's known as passes per defensive action, so a measure of how
08:44much you let the opposition do before you'll go and smack them and try and win the ball back.
08:48They weren't the most intense team in the league for doing this, and in terms of the
08:52number of turnovers they forced as a result, they were actually seventh in the league.
08:56They didn't do this all that much, but when it comes to goals scored from high turnovers,
09:03then they were top.
09:04And what you've kind of got to take from that is that this high-pressing style didn't define
09:08them, it wasn't the only thing they were looking to do, it wasn't their main focus in every
09:11game, but they were so well drilled at it that when they did do it, they became more
09:16effective than any other team.
09:18And even their possession play, which is like the defining characteristic of this team,
09:22like Enzo Maresca loves having the ball as much as I love having pints, but they weren't
09:27the best team in the league at it necessarily.
09:30Like Southampton had more of the ball on average per game than they did.
09:33If you measure the amount of possession they had in their own third, the middle third,
09:37the final third, they were never top for that, they were like second, third, and fourth.
09:41But when it came to using possession to create chances, they got more goals from live play
09:47than any other team.
09:48And what you can take from that is like, yes, they're a possession side, they had a lot
09:52of the ball, they wanted to control what was happening in games, but so did a lot of other
09:57teams.
09:58It's just that Leicester were more effective at using that to score goals, what matters,
10:02than anybody else.
10:04I guess the idea I'm trying to get across here is that you hear a lot about Maresca
10:07having this really defined ideology, and he's definitely going to impose it on Chelsea,
10:12and that makes him somehow a bit rigid.
10:14But when you start to break that philosophy down, it's not that there's like one or two
10:17things that he wants his team to do and you're going to see Chelsea do it every single game,
10:22it's that this philosophy he's got kind of like empowers the team to do a number of different
10:27things and play in a number of different styles, depending on the opposition.
10:31Like there'll be some games where you won't see the goalkeeper move into the back four,
10:34and some games where you won't see the full-back invert into the middle, and some games where
10:38you won't see a number eight arriving late into the box to get onto the end of things.
10:43But what you will see is a team that always looks like it's in control, and always looks
10:49like it has a plan.
10:50And if Maresca can implement that with Chelsea's squad, and he can implement it quickly, given
10:55some of the players they've got at their disposal, that could be big, big trouble for a lot of
11:02other teams.
11:03Now of course, yes, just very quickly, the elefante en la casa here, Enzo Fernandes.
11:10Does he fit into this?
11:12Well, I'll be honest, it's hard to see.
11:15And the moment I saw Kukerea inverting into the middle last season, and being the sort
11:19of high-energy workhorse partner that Caicedo had been crying out for, it did maybe feel
11:25to me like his days in the Chelsea shirt were potentially numbered, but I don't know who
11:30you sell him to in this PSR era.
11:33So for all, I think there is a lot of potential for Enzo Maresca to have fun with this side.
11:37I do also think there's a fairly major challenge for him there in how he makes a player like
11:42Fernandes fit into this, because for all he doesn't feel like a natural part of the system,
11:48he is too good to just waste.
11:51And while I cannot give you the answer to that right now, one thing I can tell you as
11:55a cast-iron certainty is that the second Chelsea get a good win in that early-season, sort
12:02of late-summer heat, you are going to hear that eats moretti, drinks spaghetti, hates
12:09flipping Tottenham song.
12:11Enzo Maresca.
12:12Enzo, Enzo.
12:13He's perfect.
12:14Fits like a glove.
12:15Wait.
12:16Hang on.
12:17No.
12:18Drinks moretti, eats spaghetti.
12:19Yeah, I got that the wrong way around, didn't I?
12:20I've had both of those.
12:21I should know.
12:22So yes, Chelsea fans, on the one hand, this feels great, and I think you should be excited,
12:23and you look like you're going to have a really good season, but on the other hand, I'm also
12:24the man that looked at Pochettino's team and thought, hmm, title challenges?
12:25So what do I know?
12:26Not a lot, apparently, but I do know you should subscribe to us here on 442, because if you're
12:27a Chelsea fan, there's going to be loads more coverage.
12:28on your club.
12:29You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:30The 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
12:31I did have a copy of the magazine, but my esteemed colleagues are actually in today,
12:32and I left it upstairs with them instead of bringing it in.
12:33So if you're a Chelsea fan, and you're not a Chelsea fan, we will, I guarantee, do something
12:34on your club.
12:35You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:36The 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
12:37I did have a copy of the magazine, but my esteemed colleagues are actually in today,
12:38and I left it upstairs with them instead of bringing it in.
12:39You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:40I did have a copy of the magazine, but my esteemed colleagues are actually in today,
12:41and I left it upstairs with them instead of bringing it in.
12:42You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:43The 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
12:44I did have a copy of the magazine, but my esteemed colleagues are actually in today,
12:45and I left it upstairs with them instead of bringing it in.
12:46You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:47The 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
12:48You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:49The 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
12:50You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
13:11But until next time, Adam Cleary, 442, your good self, and I will see you later.
13:17Au revoir.
13:18No, what's Spanish?
13:19Buon giorno.
13:20Arrivederci.
13:21Goodbye.
13:22Might cut that.