'The manager has done a brilliant job" - Jamie Carragher admits Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has 'proven him wrong' this season
Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher has lavished praise on manager Enzo Maresca after Chelsea's start to the 2024-25 season. The pundit admitted that the Italian manager has proved him wrong this campaign.
The west Londoners appointed Maresca in the summer after parting ways with Mauricio Pochettino. Despite the Argentine securing a sixth-place finish amidst a period of turbulence for the club, they decided to move on to a new manager.
Many had concerns over whether Maresca could turn things around at Stamford Bridge and bring the club back to winning ways, including Carragher. However, the Englishman has now made a U-turn on his previous stance.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Carragher said:
"I think the manager has done a brilliant job and to be honest, I have been proven wrong a bit with Chelsea this season, I didn’t see this. I thought it would be chopping and changing of players, and there was talk about leaving players out at the start of the season, but you go to a Chelsea game and you almost know what the team is."
The former Liverpool defender added:
"I thought that would be a problem, having so many players egos and people causing trouble on the training pitch, but that doesn’t seem to have happened, so fair play to the manager.”
Maresca certainly has proved any critics he may have had wrong, with the Blues currently third in the Premier League table after securing 19 points from 11 fixtures this season.
Pundit says Enzo Maresca has 'gotten a better tune' out of Chelsea players than Mauricio Pochettino
ESPN pundit Craig Burley seems to agree with Jamie Carragher's assessment as he lauded Enzo Maresca for the work he's done so far at Stamford Bridge.
While Pochettino managed to help the Blues rediscover some of their better form last season, Burley believes Maresca has done a better job of utilizing his squad's full potential. He said (via Chelsea News):
“It just shows you all these big, big coaches with the big names that Chelsea have gone for, the more unknown, less experienced guy, who’s gone in there, has got a much better tune out of these players than Pochettino did last year."
The Blues showed terrible form under Pochettino in the first half of last season, stagnating in the middle of the league table for the most part. However, a turnaround in form in the latter stages saw Pochettino's side climb up and finish in sixth place, securing European football.