Enzo Maresca shows ruthless approach as Chelsea boss 'rejects' pre-season idea from staff

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is already stamping his authority on his players and also his coaching staff just one month into his reign as their new boss.

Maresca began work on July 1 after succeeding Mauricio Pochettino and is currently away on a pre-season tour of the USA with the Chelsea squad.

He was able to hand-pick his backroom team after Chelsea prised him away from Leicester City on a five-year contract, paying compensation of around £10million for the former Manchester City assistant.

Former Blues goalkeeper Willy Caballero joined as his assistant, Danny Walker arrived as a coach and Michele De Bernardin supports Ben Roberts as another addition to their goalkeeping department.

He also brought across fitness coach Marcos Alvarez, analyst Javier Caballero and development coach Roberto Vitiello.

But it seems not everyone has been on the same page in Maresca’s first month in charge as the 44-year-old aims to imprint his beliefs and footballing blueprint on Chelsea.

Maresca reportedly told journalists in America a story about how his staff suggested they should sit back against Celtic. That was because the Scottish champions – who would normally not be fancied as favourites to win – had already played three more friendlies than his Chelsea side.

However, Maresca wasn’t amused by his backroom team’s suggestion that they should try to get a result, according to the Daily Mail.

The Italian felt it was more important to practice how they wanted to play with the Premier League campaign less than three weeks away as he looks to impose his possession-based, positional play style on the team.

But he was left red-faced after Chelsea were thrashed 4-1 by Celtic, with Christopher Nkunku’s penalty only a mere consolation as the Blues were torn apart at the back.

Maresca even boldly said he was “100 per cent sure we are on the right path” after the game, pointing to Celtic’s superior fitness. The west London club were also without several first-team players including Conor Gallagher, Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella for that game.

They showed a seismic improvement in their next pre-season game four days later, beating Club America 3-0 in Atlanta, with Nkunku again scoring from the spot, along with 18-year-old Marc Guiu and Noni Madueke sinking a penalty.

Maresca declared that he was delighted with their performance against the Mexican outfit and singled out their improvements from the Celtic game.

“I am very happy. I said the other day when we lost [to Celtic] that the result is always important because we are Chelsea,” he said. “But the main focus for us at the moment has to be to analyse or to judge the performance and see how we have improved.

“We struggled against Wrexham for many reasons, we struggled against Celtic for many reasons but there were many important things which we improved [against Celtic]. And today, we continued that line, which is the most important thing.”

Maresca has already had his fair share of matters away from the pitch to deal with, from Fernandez’ controversy to Conor Gallagher’s potential sale. And while his ethos is centred around tactical ideas, the Italian may be starting to realise how crucial it is to maintain harmony within the squad at Chelsea, where things historically can quickly turn sour.