Pundits debate Maresca and huge decision “he needed to make earlier in the season” | OneFootball

The London is Blue podcast have been very critical of Enzo Maresca at times this season, especially in recent weeks, so they were at pains to give him some credit in their match review of yesterday’s vital win over Fulham.

The most important thing Maresca did was pre-game: leaving out Christopher Nkunku and including Tyrique George, then choosing to bring on George, who scored a great goal to level the scores late on, setting us up for Pedro Neto’s late winner.

“[Maresca is] the one who made a tactical decision to and a technical decision today to leave Nkunku out and have Tyrique George available, and he he brings George on and he scores the equaliser,” presenter Dan Dormer pointed out.

You can see them discussing Maresca’s decision in the clip embedded here:

Maresca finally gets the message – although it may be too late

Enzo Maresca on the touchline. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

However, even while giving Maresca credit for finally favouring George (who has performed consistently well when given a chance) over Nkunku (who has been dreadful whenever he’s played for months now), one has to acknowledge that the manager is now only finally seeing the light that most of us saw months ago:

“That was a decision he needed to make earlier in the season, when he saw that Nkunku wasn’t working out and wasn’t going to work out. Maybe [he’s showing] a willingness to change in some way, shape or form, maybe he’s not as rigid as we think. But maybe he’s not the best communicator. A lot of things can be true at the same time,” they continued.

We agree – all we can hope is that Maresca continues this positive trend and plays George more often in these final weeks where he can really make a difference.