What Can Chelsea Expect With Enzo Maresca As Manager?

Chelsea are on the brink of announcing Enzo Maresca as their new manager, and we take a deeper look at what you can expect from him and how we predict he will do.

Mauricio Pochettino left Stamford Bridge at the end of the 2023/24 by mutual consent, as Chelsea hunt for another manager who can take them back to a side playing in the UEFA Champions League.

It looks like the next Chelsea manager will be one of these 3:

?? Thomas Frank
?? Kieran McKenna
?? Enzo Maresca

Who would you like? ? pic.twitter.com/6gVOP2PFkZ

— Bet9ja (@Bet9jaOfficial) May 24, 2024

It has recently been announced that Chelsea have been given permission to speak to the Italian boss by Leicester City, so the announcement of his arrival could be imminent.

Managerial career 

Maresca was appointed as Parma manager in 2021, but the following year he was made Pep Guardiola’s assistant manager at Manchester City where he has great success and won the treble.

The 44-year-old then took over the Leicester City job, after the Foxes were relegated to the EFL Championship but at the first-time of asking, Maresca won the league to gain promotion back to the top-flight.

Style of play

Maresca has an extremely distinctive style of play, similar to the one that Guardiola looks to implement at City, which is heavily possession-based football in the opponents half.

?? Chelsea have agreed to appoint Enzo Maresca as new head coach, here we go!

?? Understand the agreement is now done on contract valid until June 2029, five year deal.

It will also include an option to extend until June 2030.#CFC, set to pay compensation fee to Leicester. pic.twitter.com/o8CsGF9Jcx

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 28, 2024

The former Leicester boss will undoubtedly continue to opt for this style of play, as there is evidence there that it does work in the English top flight, and majority of the top sides in Europe also play this way.

How we rate the appointment

We grade this appointment as a 7/10, due to Chelsea already opting to go down this route in the past, with Graham Potter who had no experience managing some of the best players in the world and it did not work out.

However, Maresca somewhat has experience of this during his time at Manchester City, and although he was not the manager, he still would have been around world-class talent every day so will have an idea on how to manage them.

We predict that Maresca will be given a bit more time than previous managers, due to the club wanting to go for a project that can provide long-term success, with the talented young squad that they currently have, but also predict that he will not pick up silverware in his first season.

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