CHELSEA fans can’t wait for the start of the new Premier League season after exciting footage of Enzo Maresca’s training sessions emerged.
The Blues are finally ready to kickstart their campaign under the Italian after he took over from Mauricio Pochettino at the start of the month.
Maresca led Leicester to the Championship title playing a swashbuckling style of possession football.
And with his first week at Cobham under his belt, the tactician has already been implementing his ideas amongst Chelsea’s star-studded squad — which currently includes one forgotten ace.
The Blues put out some amazing footage compiling some of Maresca’s training sessions during his first seven days.
And fans were left gushing at the results, although some feared Chelsea are already “revealing too much’ ahead of their opening day clash against champions Manchester City.
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Maresca’s sessions indicated a heavy focus on technical and tactical play, a sharp contrast to the physical running style of predecessor Poch.
And he first got the ball rolling by putting on his own pair of football boots before taking to the turf.
The former City Treble winner then started passing drills, instructing stars like Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudyke to just take one touch on the ball.
Maresca was heard shouting “move it quicker” as he stood in the centre of the players, giving him a 360 view of the exercise.
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As the video continued, aces like Benoit Badiashile, Raheem Sterling and Christopher Nkunku came into focus.
While returning loanees including Armando Broja were seen taking on board instructions from Maresca.
The Italian soon whacked on a bib himself and joined in another passing drill.
This time, he told players to “pass and move” before hugging a laughing Madueke.
The next session saw Maresca bask in the grey skies above Cobham as he joked: “Very fresh!”
He showed he still has a graceful touch by practising some keepy-uppies.
But the serious work quickly started as he embarked on some positional play.
Maresca yelled “move together” before explaining he wanted constant short exercises swapping between tactical and physical work.
Young Brazilian duo Andrey Santos and Angelo were both seen in the background following their loans at Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg.
But also notable was the presence of forgotten man Tino Anjorin, who last featured for the Blues three years and spent last term at Portsmouth.
Maresca then observed some of his coaches leading the drills, with the number of passes between players being loudly counted.
The tactician shouted: “Quick one touch, if you need two, take two.”
But Madueke fell foul of the exercise as Maresca continued: “Noni, two touches, three touches, too much!”
He also instructed players to “make the space bigger” as the day ended with a training game.
Later in the week, Chelsea resumed with a bleep test to measure levels of fitness, with right-back Malo Gusto coming out on top.
Maresca then showed his dedication by getting a number of footballs ready by himself in heavy rain.
The Italian also gave more insight into his tactical style, telling stars to lure their opponents close before pinging off a diagonal pass to a team-mate.
Maresca noted: “Quality passes, short, drive a little bit.”
He then got hands-on by physically moving Nkunku into the space he wanted the Frenchman to occupy.
And after some 4vs4 matches, Maresca ended things with finishing drills.
And he then sat players down before telling them: “Now is the moment we need to work, every day, every day, every day.”
Chelsea’s stars certainly appeared invigorated by the new approach as they hugged each other with smiles on their faces.
Fans were also left gushing over Maresca’s training methods.
One said: “We are f*****g buzzing. We have a coach that’s actually going to teach these players high-level positional and possession-based football.”
Another declared: “I totally believe we’re going to win a trophy this season.”
One noted: “We’re cooking next season.”
However, some fans felt Chelsea were giving too much information away to opponents.
One said: “Aren’t we revealing a bit too much? Haven’t seen City or Liverpool show this much.”
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Another boomed: “Stop posting, it will be easy for opponents to deal with us.”
One added: “I hope this is not exposing our strategy of playing.”
Meet Pep Guardiola disciple Enzo Maresca
ENZO MARESCA is considered among the most exciting young coaches on the planet.
Born in Italy in 1980, he managed to guide Leicester to the Championship title in his first season as Foxes boss.
His management career started at Italian minnows Ascoli before he was snapped up by Man City in 2020 to manage their Elite Development Squad.
He guided the youth team to the Premier League 2 title in his one season working for the Citizens – with Cole Palmer in the side.
His first senior job was with Parma but he was sacked after just a few months after failing to impress.
Despite the team playing in Serie B and Maresca having an impressive squad he was unable to get them on course for promotion.
He returned to Man City and worked as one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants for the 2022/23 season as they won the Treble.
He took over relegated Leicester last summer and made an immediate impact, with the Foxes winning the Championship title.
Maresca showed his dedication to the job by living at the training ground for the first two months after his appointment.
He’s considered something of a Pep disciple and has said: “For a coach, it’s important to have the mentality of a chess player.”
During his playing career he played under Carlo Ancelotti and Marcello Lippi – and alongside ex-Brighton boss Roberto de Zerbi.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
