Chelsea won all five of their final games of last season to clinch sixth place in the Premier League table and qualify for the Europa Conference League under former head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
This time around, Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea need a similar run – starting against Everton on Saturday lunchtime – to avoid another sixth-placed finish and achieve the goal of qualifying for the Champions League.
Pochettino left Stamford Bridge, despite finishing with five successive wins, following an end-of-season review. Maresca currently retains the support of the board. While it remains to be seen if that will still be the case if Chelsea fall short of their top-five aim, Telegraph Sport examines why the Italian is being judged differently to the Argentine.
Inexperience
Pochettino had a wealth of Premier League and big-club experience, but, in Maresca, Chelsea appointed a coach who had never managed in the top flight or in Europe. It is recognised internally that, like many of the club’s young players, Maresca is having to learn on the job in many respects.
That is what the owners and sporting directors were willing to gamble on last summer and there has been an acceptance that Maresca will inevitably make mistakes and learn from his experiences. Chelsea have bargained on Maresca leaning fast and his coaching ceiling being high enough that he will eventually become one of the country’s top managers. With that in mind, Maresca will be allowed more leeway than Pochettino, who took Chelsea to the Carabao Cup final but could not get the team over the line against an inexperienced Liverpool side.
Some of Maresca’s messaging has been muddled and his squad management could be questioned, but these are all things Chelsea are confident he will improve at.
Can they really rip it up again?
Maresca is already the third permanent head coach that Chelsea’s Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly owners have appointed and at some point they need to stick with something. One of Chelsea’s problems has been that coaching changes have left them with a squad with players that suit the different coaching styles of different managers.
Effort has gone into moulding the squad to suit Maresca’s style and needs, and there is still more work to do, with the likes of Axel Disasi and Christopher Nkunku needing to be moved on. Chelsea could look for a similar style of coach if they were to sack Maresca, but they would still be returning to square one in many respects. Can they really afford to do that? At some point Chelsea’s owners and sporting directors need to stick with something and show faith in their appointment.
The Club World Cup
Chelsea play their first Club World Cup match against Leon on June 16 – just 22 days after the final game of the Premier League season at Nottingham Forest. The club moved swiftly to replace Pochettino at the end of last season, formally appointing Maresca on June 3 last year. But how feasible would it be to sack Maresca and appoint a new coach in time for the Club World Cup?
The competition might be seen as an inconvenience by many, but Chelsea are taking it seriously and much of their planning last summer was made with the intention of playing in five competitions – the Premier League, the Europa Conference League, the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup and the Club World Cup. It could even be argued that the Club World Cup is only second behind the League in Chelsea’s list of priorities because of the riches on offer.
Given Chelsea want to go all the way and the Club World Cup final is on July 13 – 34 days before the start of next season – it would also present a big challenge to replace Maresca after the tournament.
Full season assessment
Just as five games at the end of last season were not enough to convince everybody at Chelsea that Pochettino was the right man for the long term, Maresca’s performance will not be defined by the final five games of this term – or even just the second half of the season in which his team has struggled.
Nobody at Chelsea gave much credence to pundit predictions that they could maintain a title charge in the first half of the season, but the way in which Maresca’s team performed and the results they achieved will be factored into judgement over his first season in charge just as much as the poor run over the second half of the season. Chelsea will also give consideration to the injuries Maresca has had to contend with, given he lost both of his out-and-out strikers just as the transfer window shut.
Did the club ask too much of him?
This is a question Chelsea fans will not appreciate too much, given the club’s record of winning trophies in the Roman Abramovich era. But there has to be a question over how realistic it was to appoint a manager with no Premier League or European experience and ask him to change the playing style, make a commitment to the club’s policy of buying young players and qualify for the Champions League in his first season in charge.
It may be that when push comes to shove, Chelsea’s owners and sporting directors will have to accept that achieving all three aims in one campaign was simply too much to realistically ask of Maresca. He has certainly worked towards changing the playing style and was successful in doing so over the first half of the season. That has proved hard to maintain over the entire campaign, while the inexperience of the squad has also been evident over recent months.
Europa Conference League
Pochettino had a clear run at the Premier League in his only season in charge. That’s not to say his job was any easier, but there were fewer games to navigate and squad rotation was not such an issue. The Conference League could also be seen as an advantage for Maresca, as the club have breezed their way to the semi-finals to remain in the hunt for a first trophy under the Clearlake-Boehly ownership.
Would Pochettino’s job have been viewed differently by some if he had lifted the Carabao Cup? Maybe not, but it’s undoubtedly harder to part company with a coach who has delivered silverware – no matter how small or insignificant it might be seen externally. Going all the way in the Conference League would make Maresca Chelsea’s first trophy-winning coaching since Thomas Tuchel and that should not just be dismissed if it happens.
Chelsea won all five of their final games of last season to clinch sixth place in the Premier League table and qualify for the Europa Conference League under former head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
This time around, Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea need a similar run – starting against Everton on Saturday lunchtime – to avoid another sixth-placed finish and achieve the goal of qualifying for the Champions League.
Pochettino left Stamford Bridge, despite finishing with five successive wins, following an end-of-season review. Maresca currently retains the support of the board. While it remains to be seen if that will still be the case if Chelsea fall short of their top-five aim, Telegraph Sport examines why the Italian is being judged differently to the Argentine.
Inexperience
Pochettino had a wealth of Premier League and big-club experience, but, in Maresca, Chelsea appointed a coach who had never managed in the top flight or in Europe. It is recognised internally that, like many of the club’s young players, Maresca is having to learn on the job in many respects.
That is what the owners and sporting directors were willing to gamble on last summer and there has been an acceptance that Maresca will inevitably make mistakes and learn from his experiences. Chelsea have bargained on Maresca leaning fast and his coaching ceiling being high enough that he will eventually become one of the country’s top managers. With that in mind, Maresca will be allowed more leeway than Pochettino, who took Chelsea to the Carabao Cup final but could not get the team over the line against an inexperienced Liverpool side.
Some of Maresca’s messaging has been muddled and his squad management could be questioned, but these are all things Chelsea are confident he will improve at.
Can they really rip it up again?
Maresca is already the third permanent head coach that Chelsea’s Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly owners have appointed and at some point they need to stick with something. One of Chelsea’s problems has been that coaching changes have left them with a squad with players that suit the different coaching styles of different managers.
Effort has gone into moulding the squad to suit Maresca’s style and needs, and there is still more work to do, with the likes of Axel Disasi and Christopher Nkunku needing to be moved on. Chelsea could look for a similar style of coach if they were to sack Maresca, but they would still be returning to square one in many respects. Can they really afford to do that? At some point Chelsea’s owners and sporting directors need to stick with something and show faith in their appointment.
The Club World Cup
Chelsea play their first Club World Cup match against Leon on June 16 – just 22 days after the final game of the Premier League season at Nottingham Forest. The club moved swiftly to replace Pochettino at the end of last season, formally appointing Maresca on June 3 last year. But how feasible would it be to sack Maresca and appoint a new coach in time for the Club World Cup?
The competition might be seen as an inconvenience by many, but Chelsea are taking it seriously and much of their planning last summer was made with the intention of playing in five competitions – the Premier League, the Europa Conference League, the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup and the Club World Cup. It could even be argued that the Club World Cup is only second behind the League in Chelsea’s list of priorities because of the riches on offer.
Given Chelsea want to go all the way and the Club World Cup final is on July 13 – 34 days before the start of next season – it would also present a big challenge to replace Maresca after the tournament.
Full season assessment
Just as five games at the end of last season were not enough to convince everybody at Chelsea that Pochettino was the right man for the long term, Maresca’s performance will not be defined by the final five games of this term – or even just the second half of the season in which his team has struggled.
Nobody at Chelsea gave much credence to pundit predictions that they could maintain a title charge in the first half of the season, but the way in which Maresca’s team performed and the results they achieved will be factored into judgement over his first season in charge just as much as the poor run over the second half of the season. Chelsea will also give consideration to the injuries Maresca has had to contend with, given he lost both of his out-and-out strikers just as the transfer window shut.
Did the club ask too much of him?
This is a question Chelsea fans will not appreciate too much, given the club’s record of winning trophies in the Roman Abramovich era. But there has to be a question over how realistic it was to appoint a manager with no Premier League or European experience and ask him to change the playing style, make a commitment to the club’s policy of buying young players and qualify for the Champions League in his first season in charge.
It may be that when push comes to shove, Chelsea’s owners and sporting directors will have to accept that achieving all three aims in one campaign was simply too much to realistically ask of Maresca. He has certainly worked towards changing the playing style and was successful in doing so over the first half of the season. That has proved hard to maintain over the entire campaign, while the inexperience of the squad has also been evident over recent months.
Europa Conference League
Pochettino had a clear run at the Premier League in his only season in charge. That’s not to say his job was any easier, but there were fewer games to navigate and squad rotation was not such an issue. The Conference League could also be seen as an advantage for Maresca, as the club have breezed their way to the semi-finals to remain in the hunt for a first trophy under the Clearlake-Boehly ownership.
Would Pochettino’s job have been viewed differently by some if he had lifted the Carabao Cup? Maybe not, but it’s undoubtedly harder to part company with a coach who has delivered silverware – no matter how small or insignificant it might be seen externally. Going all the way in the Conference League would make Maresca Chelsea’s first trophy-winning coaching since Thomas Tuchel and that should not just be dismissed if it happens.
