Maresca abandons tactical revolution before season even starts – and watches it pay off | OneFootball

We try to hold off on too much stats chat until the league has developed a little – but we’re now 6 games deep, meaning 15% of the season is already gone and we’re getting into statistical significance.

Most teams have played a couple of good teams and a couple of bad teams, and had a pretty even split of home and away.

So where are Chelsea ranking well against their peers? After their result at the weekend they’re up to 4th, so they’re doing something right. They top the “goals scored” chart with 15, something we love to see after the struggles of the last couple of years.

What’s even more impressive is our efficiency – we’re only 11th in terms of shots taken, showing how we’re getting into dangerous positions and making it count every time.

The numbers also show we’ve scored 3 counter attack goals, second only to Spurs in the league. That’s very different to the slow paced, possession football we were told to expect from “the new Pep” Enzo Maresca. We can’t say we’re unhappy about it either.

In fact we’re only 6th in terms of possession in the whole league, and a full 10% behind Man City at that.

(Photo by Eddie Keogh/Getty Images) ab

Enzo changes his plans – and it works a treat

It’s clear that Maresca has very sensibly adapted what he might have been planning to accommodate the players he has. That’s a huge relief. One of our major concerns about his appointment was that his style didn’t seem to match what he had in the squad. But it didn’t take him long to realise that, and now we’re playing much as we expected we would under Mauricio Pochettino last season – fast, direct and deadly counter attacking football.

There are tougher tests to come against both strong teams and weaker teams who will sit deep, but it’s certainly a case of so far, so good.