Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has proved he is no Jurgen Klopp after footage released by the Blues revealed a training ground outburst from the Italian during preseason preparations.
The 44-year-old impressed with his style of football at Leicester City last season, guiding them back to the Premier League at the first attempt after clocking up 97 points from 46 games to win the Championship title. Chelsea came calling as a result, plucking him from the Foxes on a five-year deal following Mauricio Pochettino's departure.
With preseason now fully underway, Maresca will be looking to get his ideas across to the players ahead of the new season. Evidence of that has now emerged, with Chelsea releasing footage of one of his training sessions with the squad in which he can be heard barking orders around the pitch.
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In one clip, the Italian demands for his players to "stay in position" as they play, giving off the impression he is set to be another system, possession-obsessed managers like Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta, preferring to build out from the back in a slow and controlled manner.
In another clip, Maresca can be heard calling out winger Noni Madueke for taking too many touches. “Noni two touches, three touches is too much…” he complained as he crouched down around the players. If anything, it confirms that Maresca is not likely to be another Klopp.
The German was renowned for believing in "a playing philosophy that is very emotional, very fast and very strong", yet understood how environments of fear can lead to poor outcomes. Because of this, he also gave his players autonomy to take risks as they see fit.
Judging by the footage of Maresca in Chelsea training, it is evident he will not be doing things the same, or at least in a similar way. Demanding his winger release the ball almost as soon as he receives it, with three touches being "too much", is a far cry from how Klopp would have treated Mohamed Salah , for instance.
Former Liverpool assistant coach Pep Ljinders once said Klopp's principles were "30 percent tactics, 70 percent team building”, with the focus on building stronger relationships to help success. Klopp's leadership at Liverpool was his strongest asset, whereas others like Guardiola and, evidently, Maresca are more focused on other things elsewhere.
Klopp's football was never boring, either, with Liverpool one of the most dominant, attacking sides in the world under his stewardship. While Guardiola has proved that his style of football does work, as shown with four successive Premier League titles with Manchester City , the rigid, extremely possession-focused football can be quite boring.
With Maresca appearing to follow a similar path, he will soon slot into the same bracket as the Spaniard, rather than that of Klopp.
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