Former Chelsea player and ESPN Pundit Craig Burley has revealed the major difference he’s noticed between the Blues under Enzo Maresca and Mauricio Pochettino.
Maresca replaced Pochettino this summer after guiding Leicester to the Championship title last season and has overseen a good start to his first campaign at Stamford Bridge.
The Italian has guided Chelsea to ten points from their first five games and with Saturday’s win against West Ham he became the first manager since Pep Guardiola in 2016 to win his first three away games in the Premier League.
Burley on differences between Chelsea under Maresca and Pochettino
Although it’s early days you can see the players are adapting to what the 44-year-old is asking of them and for many of the squad they are being asked to play in a way they haven’t done so before.
Last season under Pochettino Chelsea lacked a lot of control in games and were often too cautious, but on the early evidence so far it seems the Blues are controlling games and getting the ball forward a lot quicker.
Former Blue Burley has highlighted what he believes is the major difference between Chelsea under Maresca compared to Pochettino.
“The days of, at the moment, of Chelsea under [Thomas] Tuchel and certainly under Pochettino playing a bit more pedestrian, letting teams get bodies back, and having like, you know, 100 passes, he [Maresca] has changed that,” he told ESPN.
“It’s passes and then forward. It’s looking forward more often than not, and again, today [Saturday], they did that very, very well.”
It’s certainly been a good start to the season and other than the disappointing draw at home to Crystal Palace the Blues couldn’t have asked for a much better start.
It will be interesting to how the team develops over the course of the season as they get more accustomed to Maresca and his demands, but on the evidence so far there’s no reason why Chelsea can’t get themselves back into the top four.
