Some people will say that Enzo Maresca has been handed the dream at Chelsea. I mean, the club have assembled the most expensive squad in the world for two years in a row now, according to CIES Football.
But for me, this is actually a negative. You can spend all the money you want to spend, but if it’s not spent wisely, it’s wasted spend.
Chelsea have spent some of it wisely, very wisely indeed. Players like Estevao Willian, Dastan Satpaev, Geovany Quenda, amongst others, look to be incredible investments for the future.
But how do any of them help Enzo Maresca THIS season? Do any of them play centre back? Do any of them upgrade our goalkeeper position? Do any of them play as a proven striker right now? The answer is no to all of that.
We consistently ignore the HERE AND NOW at this club under the new owners. I don’t care that one day it will all come together, and I actually agree that it will. I’ve always said this. But why are we ignoring the present day to get there? Why couldn’t we do both?
Maresca asked for a new goalkeeper and a new centre back this summer, he got neither. And now, you can read between the lines with some of his comments and just know exactly what he is thinking deep down. I have no doubt at all that he is unhappy with the summer transfer activity that the club did and in fact, I know he isn’t, because I heard from trusted sources that he isn’t. He even publicly asked for a new centre back – we all remember that and will not forget that no matter how it is spun and tried to be swept under the rug. We all heard it.
This is why I am not gunning for Maresca nor will I have any major gripes with him if we continue to stutter this season.
We’ve only won two games out of six played in all competitions so far this season, and we’ve had a relatively ‘easy’ start to it on paper as well. This should genuinely concern people. Maresca is not immune to criticism on this but for me it’s down to the transfer window being a 6/10 more than anything else.
Maresca is out there complimenting the transfer activity of Liverpool, who made some big marquee signings and really went for it this window. It’s no coincidence that they have won all five of their games so far and Maresca is saying it’s impossible to catch them already.
He’s also saying he doesn’t have enough centre back options after his squad is struggling with injuries and fatigue. We played in the Club World Cup all summer, did nobody see this coming? Levi Colwill got injured, did nobody want to react to that!?
I’m not hearing that we got restricted by UEFA. We signed TWO left wingers who are both big risks, spending £90m on them. If we were smarter then we would have spent no more than £30m on a new left winger and the rest could have gone on a new centre back and a goalkeeper, what Maresca wanted. That’s just one example. I’m not hearing any excuses. We loaned in a player from Brighton, could we not have just done that for an experienced centre back to come in and help?
Maresca admitted on Liverpool: “If they continue in this way I think it is impossible to catch them, not just for us, but for all the clubs.
“They have been doing a fantastic job since last year, and the players they have decided to buy shows the intention of the club to go again for the Premier League and the Champions League, and that is quite clear.”
And he’s literally desperately out there asking for another centre back. It’s so clear.
“Because of the Club World Cup and because we never stop,” Maresca said.
“We need to manage and protect different players. For sure, Cole is one of them. Another one is Moi [Moises Caicedo].
“Joao Pedro, also. Since he joined us, he’s playing every game.
Maresca also lamented that injuries mean he will likely have to play Tosin Adarabioyo, Wesley Fofana or Trevoh Chalobah in tonight’s game vs Lincoln.
“I would love to rest both of them because they deserve to rest,” Maresca said of Chalobah and Tosin.
“The problem is that we also have Wes Fofana playing after a long time. So if we rest Tosin, if we rest Trev, and if we rest Wes, probably I need to play some part of the game!
“We don’t have defenders, so some of them need to play.”
Yes, we have academy players who can come in and I will get on Maresca’s back if he doesn’t use them.
But everything he’s said here is correct, we’ve been left short. And as much as Jamie Carragher was correct with his comments on our defenders and goalkeeper not being enough to challenge at the very top yesterday, Gary Neville also had a point with his comments on our attackers.
Gary Neville:
“[Chelsea] look well short for me, still, up front. For all the money that they’ve spent, and I know they’ve got good players, he’s got Delap and Joao Pedro, who’s a good player. But they’re still not at that level, nothing like Haaland, or Isak or even Ekitike.”
He’s wrong on Ekitike but the other two, yep.
Was Liam Delap and Joao Pedro every enough? Pedro is a 10 for me, and Delap, as much as I am a huge fan of him, is not the finished article either and I’ve said that from the off. These aren’t proven bangers. Pedro is class but he’s an attacking midfielder for me rather than a 9.
