Enzo Maresca finds Chelsea blueprint for high-stakes games - whether he likes it or not | OneFootball

Blues boss craves more experience in his squad, but he’s unlikely to get it

Despite the score, the gameplan was working. That was the belief of Enzo Maresca and the message he relayed to his players in his half-time team talk as Chelsea trailed Newcastle 2-0 at St James’ Park on Saturday.

Nick Woltemade had almost completed his hat-trick in the 45th minute and Newcastle had scythed Chelsea open at will, a catalogue of chances producing two fine goals.

But Chelsea re-emerged a different team. They progressed the ball up the pitch more successfully, got back into the game with Reece James’s sublime free-kick and stopped making unforced errors in defence. Through Joao Pedro’s one-on-one finish assisted by his own goalkeeper, they earned a draw that by the end they deserved.

This felt a significant moment in the evolution of Maresca’s youthful side, as Chelsea’s four-game losing streak at St James’ Park, dating back to 2021, finally ended.

Chelsea’s inexperience — still the youngest squad in the Premier League by a fair way — is a topic that never goes away. In September, Maresca fielded a player aged 28 or over for the first time in his tenure, and he has still never called on a player aged 30 or older in his time at the club.

The question is whether Chelsea can cope without older and more experienced players. Or will their youth hold them back from competing for the title over the next few years?

After a fortnight in which he has ruffled a few feathers, Maresca implied before Saturday’s match that he craves more experience within the group, saying: “When you have a 20, 21-year-old and a player who is 30, 31 years old, and he starts to say something [to them], it's invaluable. But it's the strategy of the club [of younger players].”

And when asked afterwards whether a more experienced group would have avoided that torrid first-half display and may cope better with hostile atmospheres, the Italian answered in no uncertain terms: “Yes, for sure. Because they probably know better how to manage this kind of noise or this kind of situation.”

Reece James celebrates scoring Chelsea’s first goal against Newcastle

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Yet Maresca added: “But I think the ones we have are doing a great job also in this aspect.” And while that may not have appeared the case this month when losing from a winning position at Atalanta or well beaten by newly-promoted Leeds, certainly there was a sense in the north east of Chelsea getting themselves out of the hole they’d dug.

Maresca tweaked their in-possession shape to a 4-3-3 formation and the players were more effective at passing between the lines. The stark improvement showed Chelsea coming of age in real time.

The way they matched the intensity of Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes in midfield and took the game to Newcastle in the second half bodes well, not only because Manchester City is their first away trip of the new year, but also with the league phase of the Champions League nearing its conclusion.

Chelsea may head to Antonio Conte’s Napoli at the end of January needing a result. St James’ Park can be something of a blueprint for how not to start, and for how to set up for a high-stakes away game they cannot afford to lose.

Chelsea’s recruitment strategy of trusting talented young players is not about to change, and so Maresca and his players must develop valuable experience for themselves.

They will have learnt plenty against Newcastle, and the other side of Christmas, they can put it to use.