Athletic article points to how Maresca is failing his Chelsea team compared to Pochettino | OneFootball

We wrote an opinion piece yesterday about Enzo Maresca’s claims following the loss to Man City that his team were improving, despite results going against them.

“In my opinion, we are a better team than one month ago, two months ago. This kind of moment, these kinds of games — for sure, they are going to make us better because we need to live this experience,” the manager said. The idea is that suffering those bad moments will make the team strong in the long run.

Clearly, we disagreed with that notion. And Liam Twomey of the Athletic followed it up with a similar piece that went into more detail in terms of disproving the idea.

He points to all the same things we did: the way that the “intensity and energy” that carried us through the early season “tends to dissipate at the first real sign of opposition resistance.”

Twomey also points to Maresca’s personal failings here, saying that there was “no obvious input from the touchline to slow the shifting momentum.”

That’s true the subs, the tactics, the motivation from the coach isn’t there. He’s failing to help them turn things around once they go sour.

This doesn’t compare favourably to last season’s game, where Mauricio Pochettino’s team “set up on Guardiola’s side with a fierce intensity,” something Maresca’s team “seem incapable of sustaining.”

Chelsea lack the desire and the belief to take on top teams

Chelsea players fight Ipswich at full time. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Twomey’s conclusions are the same as ours, ultimately. It doesn’t matter how good the players in your squad are, or how tactically smart the manager. If they don’t believe they’re good enough, and they don’t try hard enough, they’re not going to achieve anything.

Just look at the Premier League table now – hard work and belief are counting for more than net spend, from top to bottom. Chelsea are into a negative spiral now where bad results are draining their confidence, which is hurting their results.