Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca proved he’s no Jurgen Klopp after footage released by the Blues revealed
the Italian’s abusive behaviour on the training ground during pre-season preparations.
The 44-year-old impressed with his style of football at Leicester City last season, leading the team back to the Premier
League for the first time after collecting 97 points from 46 games to win the league title.
That resulted in a call from Chelsea, who signed him from the Foxes on a five-year contract following the departure of Mauricio Pochettino.
Pre-season preparations are already in full swing and Maresca is eager to get his message across to the players ahead of the new season.
Evidence of this came to light when Chelsea released footage from one of their team training sessions,
in which he can be heard barking commands on the pitch.
In one clip, the Italian is seen instructing his players to “stay in place” during the match, giving the impression that he
represents a different system to possession-obsessed managers like Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta,
who prefer to press slowly from the back in a controlled manner. In another clip, Maresca can be heard yelling at winger
Noni Madueke for taking too many touches: “Noni, two touches, three touches, too many…”
he complained, crouching around the players. In any case, it has confirmed that Maleska is unlikely to be other KLOPP.
Germans were known for believing in “very emotional, very fast, and very strong performance philosophy”,
but the conditions of fear could lead to insufficient results. I realized that. That’s why he also gave his players the autonomy they needed to take risks where they saw fit.
Judging by footage of Maresca in Chelsea training, it’s clear he won’t do things the same way, or at least in a similar way.
Asking wingers to give the ball up as soon as they receive it and calling three touches “too many” is a far cry from how Klopp treats Mohamed Salah, for example.
Former Liverpool assistant coach Pep Lijnders once said Klopp’s principles are “30 percent tactics, 70 percent team-building,
” with an emphasis on building stronger relationships to drive success. Klopp’s leadership at Liverpool is his greatest asset,
while others like Guardiola and obviously Maresca are more focused on other things.
Klopp’s football was never boring either. Under his leadership, Liverpool were one of the most dominant and attacking teams in the world.
Guardiola has proven his style of play works, as evidenced by his four consecutive Premier League titles
with Manchester City, but difficult, extremely possession-oriented football can become very boring.
Maresca looks set to follow a similar path, but he’ll soon be in the same league as the Spaniard rather than Klopp.
