Avoiding Pochettino's Pitfalls: 3 Lessons for Maresca at Chelsea

Chelsea has finalized its search for a new head coach by appointing Enzo Maresca. The Italian coach emerged as the chosen candidate for Chelsea from a shortlist of four contenders selected by the club's hierarchy. Since the new ownership took over, he will be the sixth person to lead the team, either in a permanent or caretaker capacity.

Enzo Maresca previously served as a development coach at Manchester City, where he won the Premier League 2 title in 2021. He then became the head coach of Parma but was sacked within a few months. At the start of the 2022-23 season, Maresca returned to Manchester City as an assistant coach to Pep Guardiola. After a year, he signed as the manager of Leicester City following their relegation to the Championship. Under his leadership, Leicester won the Championship title, securing immediate promotion back to the Premier League at the end of the recent season.

It was reported that Enzo Maresca watched hours of Leicester City's footage from the 2022-23 season before taking charge of the club. If that's true, he will likely spend a similar amount of time analyzing Chelsea's performances under Mauricio Pochettino. Additionally, the Italian has firsthand experience from when Leicester visited Stamford Bridge for an FA Cup clash, which Chelsea won 4-2. Here are three mistakes of Pochettino that Maresca should avoid if he is to succeed at Chelsea.