Enzo Maresca needs backing, not sacking

It's those above him who should face scrutiny, and back him

I wrote an article defending Chelsea’s head coach Enzo Maresca only a week ago. But another catastrophic defeat has brought yet more speculation over his future at Chelsea. It’s escalated even since the Man Utd game, hence this article today. There was booing at the Bridge on Saturday and many are now demanding a change. He’s facing huge criticism from many fans right now and losing a lot of the fanbase.

Since my last article, lots has happened which warrants discussion. There’s been stories from credible sources of discontent behind the scenes, some players not being happy, tension between Maresca and the Sporting Directors. This has led to rumours of a change being imminent, if we lose a couple more games.

Then Sunday evening, we got some positive news for those who believe Maresca should stay. Matt Law and others reported that the ownership and Sporting Directors are fully behind Enzo Maresca, have no plans to replace him, understand the injuries and red cards are affecting results (which I believe is true) and he’ll be assessed properly in the summer. I’d be more skeptical of this normally, but they said this during a worse run of form last season, and they kept their word. He turned it around and kept his job.

Of course there’s still a chance they could be briefings before they sack him anyway after a couple more defeats. But given they’ve done this before and kept their word, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. For now, anyway.

They’re right to stick by Maresca too, because despite this bad run, his overall Chelsea record is good. Including the Benfica win, he’s now managed 73 games, won 45, and lost only 17, with 3 of those in the last two weeks. He also beat two other PL teams competing in Europe this season. His overall Chelsea win percentage is 62%, which is very respectable.

In 2025 from Jan 1st, we’re 5th in the PL form table, only 3 points behind 4th place. We’re getting 1.8 points per game, which is 68 points over a 38 game season - and remember, we have Levi Colwill, Cole Palmer, Liam Delap and a few others suffering injuries, and had no striker for part of this year.

Cole Palmer hasn’t scored many open play goals in the PL this year either, and had two awful runs of form. Yet in the calendar year we’re still on course for near enough the points we got last season, which got us top 4.

Not to mention, as we all know, he’s actually won two trophies, the Conference League and Club World Cup, and beaten some top teams and top managers. Arne Slot, Manuel Pelligrini, Luis Enrique are all top managers, and Maresca beat them all. He’s beaten the PL winners, Champions League winners, Europa League winners and last season beat several teams who were playing in the Champions League. We’ve also developed a better mentality, coming from behind to win multiple times this calendar year - including in the Conference League final.

The other new development this weekend was Jose Mourinho, arguably Chelsea’s greatest manager, who we play against this week, praised Maresca, and said that the Conference League was an important competition for us to win for where we are, and help build a winning culture. He also applauded our Club World Cup win. He gives Maresca credit for giving a focus and structure to the Chelsea project, and for the trophies.

However, I want to reiterate, as I did before, that Enzo Maresca HAS messed up in recent Chelsea games and deserves some criticism. Some of his substitutions and even team selections have been questionable, flat out ignoring some genuinely talented players including Josh Acheampong, Alejandro Garnacho, Jamie Gittens and Marc Guiu, who I rate as a striker.

His complaining to the media and subtle messages about transfers don’t actually help the team either, to me those things should be kept in house. Fans ARE entitled to be frustrated at performances and results and to express those feelings.

Oh and on the reports about players, quite frankly, I don’t care if players aren’t “vibing” with him. They’re professional footballers and he gave many of them their first major trophies and Champions League football. Player power is over at Chelsea, the club should not be bowing to the whims of any player when you have a double trophy winning manager in place.

Taking all of the above and his overall record into consideration, I personally think Enzo Maresca has done a good job at Chelsea and earned some time. Sacking him now would be counter productive and reactionary.

It’s not Maresca who should be under the biggest scrutiny either. There’s two others above him who absolutely do deserve some scrutiny though. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you either (but I will).

These two people who should be facing criticism held accountable for their mistakes, are of course the Sporting Directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. I’m done with these two claiming credit for everything good - sometimes things they didn’t really have much hand in - and yet running away and scapegoating players or managers when things get tough. It’s cowardly and unprofessional.

They’ve got literally no right to judge others for doing a poor job when its clear they’re not doing a great job either. They’ve signed a lot of talented players, without question, and built a good scouting network. But in some key areas they have absolutely failed. Nothing is going to change until something changes with them.

I’m not asking for them to be sacked, as they do have talents which can help Chelsea , but to be moved to jobs more appropriate to each of their skillsets. I doubt that ever happens though, there appears to be no accountability whatsoever at that level of the club right now.

The very LEAST they can do is to back Maresca in the January market. Sell a CB - Benoit Badiashile is the prime candidate - and sign a top CB with the cash they “kept behind” for January transfers. Loan out Marc Guiu, who Maresca clearly doesn’t rate, and bring in Emanuel Emegha to give depth and more quality to our attack. That would be practical action to prove the manager is being backed.

Whatever happens to Enzo Maresca at Chelsea, he will, to me, go down in Chelsea history as a success. He’s developed a lot of players, given more academy debuts in a single season than ANY Chelsea manager in history, achieved Champions League football and won two trophies. He coached one of our best performances in recent history against PSG. Those achievements will remain, for me, however it ends for him.

My hope is he can now turn it around, get us winning again, and silence the critics. We need stability at manager level, not more chaos.

The Score