Enzo - would you have him back?

[sm1]

The Italian Russell Martin, no thanks. Guys like Enzo and Kompany have shown this style of football is ok with a dominant team, but a team with a budget like ours needs a more pragmatic coach. Someone who's willing to adapt and evolve, not be a stubborn ideologue.

[Chelmofox]

4 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

I feel like people are conveniently forgetting his final 12 or so games here. It was dreadful. 

Yeah that Southampton game was horrible. 

[cityfanlee23]

4 hours ago, oxford blue said:

I am surprised there is a majority (currently) who would want him back.  It is true many Chelsea fans would like to see him dismissed because of the boring football they play. Wasn't there similar boring football at Leicester last season - how many times were you frustrated with 20 plus passes to end back where possession started?

 

Interesting article in Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/16/chelsea-sancho-maresca-premier-league-analysis

 

Given the ability of the Chelsea squad, they have under-performed this season. Of course , most notable (apart from first few games) is Palmer; he must be so frustrated with playing style. Given the talent (or lack of it) in the squad, we would be in a similar position in PL had we stayed. And if reports are true, it was Maresca's call to give Vestergaard a 3 year contract - which made no sense at the time and even less now.

Imagine where they would be without Palmer playing Ballon D’or level football for the majority of this season until recently. 
 

Massive squad brimming with talent, 250m spent, requested more in January, 21 points off the title, and only a point ahead of Man City who have had one of their worst seasons in recent history. 
 

The football is often boring (but makes a great highlight reel when it works), it’s predictable and he suffered the same collapse in form that he did with us, overrated by Leicester fans imo, nowhere near elite.

[winteriscoming]

Doing exactly what he did here at Chelsea and it’s boring and predictable. His robotic approach and not doing anything different tactically will be his downfall. He’ll get a decent pay off from Chelsea in the summer and end up at Sevilla. 
I don’t want him back. 

[BenTheFox]

3 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Yeah that Southampton game was horrible. 

Yeah, Plymouth away, Milwall away, Bristol City away, West Brom at home and QPR at home were all sensational...

[Craig]

32 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Yeah that Southampton game was horrible. 

Preston was one of the worst evenings I've ever had watching football too. 

[Supergray22]

It wasn’t always pretty and I found the style a bit boring at times but he did the business and at least got us winning. Our team wasn’t that great as shown this season. I would take him back if we couldn’t find someone who really stood out. We really do need a bit of clear out on the playing side and bring in some real talent with the right character. No more Oliver skipp or cast off palace players. Need the right DOF to enable that. 

[jim5000]

It's a moot point, he wouldn't come back. Leicester in the Championship was a good step in his career, but he will be off managing top clubs across Europe from now on.

[Chrysalis]

No for the following reasons.

 

1 - Already proven disloyal. 

2 - He contributed to our current problems with the style of play, Ruud has a similar ideology and the results show it for what it is.

 

To all the people voting yes, we would be where Southampton are if Enzo stayed with us.  Why do people keep putting style of play ahead of results and goals.  Why are people still worshipping him?

Edited 22 March by Chrysalis

[Winstonthedog]

All true ... I go to see my team win ... sometimes we'll and sometimes win ugly ... when we lose as long as we are beat by a better side but still play with passion and effort I will always accept that ... we have to play to our strengths and possession football is definitely not one ... need to get a bit more realistic 

[inckley fox]

20 hours ago, Chelmofox said:

Yeah that Southampton game was horrible. 

Yes, that Southampton game... The one a week after after the loss to Plymouth and the subsequent crisis meeting which followed it, when we finally showed what could be done by abandoning a few of his long-since-sussed footballing fixations, adapting to the opposition for once, and hammering them with very little possession. We secured the title pretty much in the process, as a result of - just for a moment - parking some of Enzo's less well-judged convictions to one side. It was great, I agree, and an indication of what Enzo would have to learn to do if he wanted to become a top manager. Not nearly enough of what occurred after the New Year was particularly inspiring though, which was, I suppose, the point the chap was making.

[dooflip]

Never in a million years.

And I don’t want anyone in the pep mould either. We never mastered this style of playing, and it’s stopped being as effective as it was when it first came about.

 

We need a manager who will have us playing with pashun and intensiteeeeeee.

sit when we need to, pressing and harassing the opposition, and play a quick ball forward to a player who’s actually been bothered to move to find space when it’s on. Simples. Bonus points for us going back to leaving two players up when defending a corner.

[Blarmy]

Errr, of course? 

[HitchinFox]

On 20/03/2025 at 17:00, bovril said:

Find some of the resistance towards him a bit difficult to understand in all honesty.

 

It's the same people who think the ownership and Rudkin are beyond reproach.

[Gubbins]

43 minutes ago, HitchinFox said:

 

It's the same people who think the ownership and Rudkin are beyond reproach.

It really isn't. It's from people who actually want to enjoy watching football and who unlike some of the hipsters on here aren't enamoured with marescas dull coma inducing shite. 

[Leicesterpool]

Enzo not dropping to the championship his next job will either be in the Premier league or in a top tier league in Europe. 

[LcFc_Smiv]

14 hours ago, Chrysalis said:

No for the following reasons.

 

1 - Already proven disloyal. 

2 - He contributed to our current problems with the style of play, Ruud has a similar ideology and the results show it for what it is.

 

To all the people voting yes, we would be where Southampton are if Enzo stayed with us.  Why do people keep putting style of play ahead of results and goals.  Why are people still worshipping him?

I agree around the style of play but it's clear that the club has an obsession with the style they want and will (try to) hire a manager to implement it. He was merely a symptom, rather than the problem.

 

Enzos football for me is everything wrong with the modern game but when we have clubs like ours, Southampton, Chelsea, Man City etc they aren't going to change. As is the common theme around here, if we want change, it needs to start with higher up.

Edited 23 March by LcFc_Smiv

[Gazza M]

Wouldn't want him here for him to run off again. We gave him a leg up in 2023. He has chosen his own path now. 

[adamkhalifa]

Enzo style of play is 'so last season'. Time to get someone that can get the best out the players. Not the system.

[accessory]

On 22/03/2025 at 00:07, jim5000 said:

It's a moot point, he wouldn't come back. Leicester in the Championship was a good step in his career, but he will be off managing top clubs across Europe from now on.

Disagree. Chelsea may well be as good as it gets for Maresca.

 

With the squad at his disposal, there should be no excuse for him struggling, as he has been this season, against the likes of Bournemouth. Brighton, Fulham and Forest.

 

When his club fall out of the top five, and thus miss out on the Champions League again, Maresca will meet the same fate as many of his predecessors in the Stamford Bridge hot seat.

 

His next stop will probably be a mid-ranking club in La Liga or Serie A.

[accessory]

A lot of folk wanting EM back will have been among those calling for his head (70% of voters at the time) after that horror week of defeats last season at Millwall and Plymouth.

 

Fickle much?

 

Or just genuinely forgetful?

[Leicesterpool]

I dont think defensively wed have look so poor under Enzo this season.

[iancognito]

On 21/03/2025 at 20:21, BenTheFox said:

Yeah, Plymouth away, Milwall away, Bristol City away, West Brom at home and QPR at home were all sensational...

In a division where all but two teams sat back against us and took 30 games to work out how to not get beat by 3 or 4. The boring games were just trying to find a way through two banks of 5 where there was virtually no jeopardy. Would have been good to see how that style worked for us in this league where there would have been more risks. At least the players had bought into it. They've accepted nothing that Cooper or RvN have tried to do.

[ian__marshall]

Bit bemused by the negativity towards Enzo. Admittedly his style of play was one dimensional at times but he's light years ahead of what has come since.

 

You can see the drop off in the levels of detail since he left. The team no longer play the ball to the receivers stronger foot meaning we're unable to move the ball through the thirds quickly, we no longer stand the ball up to the back stick for a few players to attack the ball when we get into the box, likewise we rarely cut the ball back to the penalty spot from wide areas for a late runner to shoot.

 

We've gone from being a well coached side to one that hasn't got a clue and that's reflected in the huge drop off seen with players like Vestergaard, Winks, and Mavididi who rather than playing to their strengths have been asked to do things they aren't capable of. 

 

I think we'd have comfortably stayed up this season with him in charge. It's not just the system with Enzo, but more importantly the culture and standards he instilled in the team. He wouldn't tolerate some of the nonsense we've seen this season.

 

I'm not saying we wouldn't have got hammered at times, I think we would, but I do think we'd have won enough games to stay up over the course of the season, so whilst he isn't perfect I'd have him back in a heartbeat. 

 

That said, even if he was sacked by Chelsea, as we've seen with several of their past managers I imagine there would be clauses preventing him taking another role so soon anyway, so I think the chance of this happening is very low. 

[cropstonfox]

Couldn't be doing with Enzo ball again.

If he'd stayed we might gave made a better fist of it this season, but this group of players are not good enough for the premier league.Enzo was stuttering to get us over the line,There must be better options.