Enzo Maresca showing more Antonio Conte than Pep Guardiola for now – Talk Chelsea

Enzo Maresca has been adapting his style of play and setup depending on opponents and how they play/setup. For me, it’s becoming pretty clear to see this.

He has even said that he prepares games based on how the opposition team attack and defend.

I wouldn’t call ‘Maresca-ball’ possession football. So far, from what I have witnessed, I would call it transitional football.

So perhaps the ‘mini-Pep’ shouts were not accurate at all, and maybe he is a ‘mini-Conte’ instead?

And also, maybe the ‘he has no plan-b’ and can only play one style of football claims are also wrong?

In fact, for me he has already proven those claims were wrong after just six league games at Chelsea.

Whatever happens next and down the line, what Maresca has shown me is that he actually is a pragmatic manager, and right now I am seeing more comparisons in his Chelsea setup to that of Antonio Conte, than what I am to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City setup. And for me, that is a good thing.

I mentioned in my match report from the Brighton win that I saw us playing in a counter-attacking style, and for me, this suits our players.

Just look at these examples from the game as quick transitional plays and how devastating we are playing them…

We have so much pace and quality in attack now that it just makes sense to play this way. But Maresca is doing this based on the opposition. It doesn’t mean we will play every game like this, because not every team we meet will play with such a high-line as Brighton do. Maresca would have known this, done his research, and opted to play a transitional game against them. And it worked a treat. As I also said in my match report, we exploited their high-line in transition and looked like we could score every time we did.

We utilised the vision and creativity of Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer, who were looping passes in behind for fun, and the pace and direct mindsets of our attackers really caused Brighton problems.

We stayed compact and…

Source link : https://www.talkchelsea.net/opinions/opinion-enzo-maresca-showing-more-antonio-conte-than-pep-guardiola-for-now/

Author : Simon Phillips

Publish date : 2024-10-01 11:02:37

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