Chelsea: Enzo Maresca’s conservative substitutions sum up a team that has become too predictable | OneFootball

Maresca’s in-game management under the spotlight as Blues continue to struggle

At the top of the piece, let us acknowledge that Enzo Maresca did not exactly have loads of options. On his bench at Brighton on Saturday night were only three outfield players who began the season as senior pros, only one of whom plays in the attacking third. Whose fault that is its own conundrum, but there’s the context.

And so, with Chelsea 2-1 down and heading out of the FA Cup, a bit of imagination was needed to turn the tide and the tie.

Instead, as is his strong default, Maresca stuck with Plan A, making only like-for-like substitutions as Enzo Fernandez came on for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and then Noni Madueke and Tyrique George replaced the pair of starting wingers with only a quarter-of-an-hour to play.

In that time, there was no notable shift in the game’s pattern, not one shot on target and, for Brighton on their way to the fifth round, no major cause for alarm.

Chelsea were knocked out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 defeat against Brighton at the Amex on Saturday

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Afterwards, Maresca was asked to explain the thinking behind his symmetrical changes and pressed on why, with nothing to lose, a defensive player could not have been sacrificed instead.

“Because I think in that case, if you change, for instance, an attacking player, a winger, for a defender, you expose yourself probably a bit too much,” he said. In the circumstances, though, why not take the risk?

Now, of course, there is a chance that Maresca is not overly fussed about the domestic cups. Recall the strange case of the Carabao Cup exit at Newcastle in the autumn, when the Italian made only one substitution and, despite having taken him to St James’s Park, left Cole Palmer unused.

But Maresca’s use of his bench has been a persistent bug bear for Chelsea supporters for some time now, amplified during a mid-season slump that is showing few signs of ending.

The chief criticism has been around timing; in the last nine Premier League games, Chelsea’s first substitution has come, on average, seven minutes later than across the first 15 (in the 66th minute, compared to the 59th).

There have been some particularly egregious examples along the way. Drawing 0-0 at Everton, for instance, Maresca did not make a change until the 75th minute. At Crystal Palace, with his team only a goal up and momentum blatantly swinging against them, he waited until the 81st minute. Palace equalised 60 seconds later.

Maresca stuck with Plan A and made only like-for-like substitutions as Chelsea were heading out of the FA Cup at Brighton

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In fairness, though, there have been occasions within that run where Maresca has been proactive and reaped reward, most notably against West Ham a week ago, when he made four changes before the 61st minute to spark a comeback from 1-0 down to win the game. Pedro Neto, coming off the bench, was outstanding, even if his equaliser was only the second goal involvement by a Chelsea substitute in three months.

Maresca’s devotion to like-for-like changes, by contrast, is no recent phenomenon and few, if any, redeeming counter-instances leap to mind. At 2-1 down against Manchester City with half-an-hour to play, one can understand why Maresca did not lob forwards on for defenders and leave the back door unlocked (though City picked it anyway, with a late clinching third). But trailing at newly-promoted Ipswich, did all four changes really need to be like-for-like in the name of structure and shape?

It blends into a broader sense that this team and this manager have become too predictable in how they start games and then too stubborn once they begin to drift.

That is at least partly by design; Maresca hated the “basketball” rhythms of his early games in charge and has been objectively successful in his hunt for greater control. Almost two thirds of the way through the season, only Manchester City are averaging more possession of the ball. Notably, though, only City and Southampton play fewer of their passes forwards.

The Blues’s major strength - their potency in playing off-the-cuff in transition - has been stifled in favour of the script. As their pace of play slows and spaces close, their best player, Cole Palmer, is finding less and less room to do his thing.

True, Chelsea were too open early in the season, but it is not as if they have stopped conceding goals now. And, yes, they probably were involved in too many games of to-and-fro, but they were also winning more of them than not. The home victory over Brighton - when Palmer scored four - stands as a timely case in point.

The return fixture comes on Friday night, when Chelsea will be desperate to have Nicolas Jackson - the one player from whom the chaos cannot be coached - fit to add some variety to their attack.