Does Enzo Maresca fully trust his Chelsea squad?

Enzo Maresca’s most emphatic moment of approval from the touchline against Fulham came midway through the second half. Chelsea’s head coach raised both hands above his head to sustained applause when Cole Palmer, who had assessed ambitious passes to Nicolas Jackson or Pedro Neto in front of him but was surrounded by Fulham bodies, instead chose to turn away and pass backwards to consolidate possession of the ball.

Maresca’s next particularly notable reaction came in the 95th minute.

Enzo Fernandez attempted an attempted move down the left flank, which Fulham striker Rodrigo Muniz headed away and the ball flew back to Robert Sanchez, who aimlessly sent it upfield. The visitors quickly gained possession and Maresca crouched in dismay as Harry Wilson sent Sasa Lukic into the right channel while several runners, including Muniz, lined up to hit a low cross to the back post. Muniz controlled the ball with his first touch, and with his second he made it 2-1.

Losing a football game upsets any coach, but losing a basketball game is particularly painful for Maresca.

“They are a team that if you want to attack quickly, you will attack quickly and it becomes a basketball game,” Chelsea’s head coach said in his post-match press conference. “It’s not for us, we have to control it better.

“It’s a game where before you attack you have to give passes, passes, passes because that’s what keeps us together and the moment we lose the ball we can be aggressive.” But when we’re with one , want to attack with two passes, then we are challenged, we are open and they can hurt us. That’s a lesson we can learn.”

The irony for Chelsea was that Fulham’s first victory at Stamford Bridge since 1979 was sealed with an attack that enabled Maresca’s team to climb to second place in the Premier League. His pleas for the team to slow down were at times at odds with the evidence on the field that many of his attackers do their best work in transition against overwhelmed opponents.

Chelsea had no such opportunities against Fulham. Marco Silva was cleverly prepared to thwart their 5-4-1 deep block and generally managed to capture the spaces they deemed most dangerous. Their hard work made the first goal of the game all the more remarkable: partly a mistake in the visitors’ defensive execution, partly brilliant from Palmer.

Cole Palmer casually passed the ball into the net and gave Chelsea the lead 🥶👏#PLonPrime #CHEFUL pic.twitter.com/P1YHHHneQM

– Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 26, 2024

And for US readers:

Cole Palmer brings Chelsea fans a belated Christmas present. 🥶

📺 Peacock | #CHEFUL pic.twitter.com/jzHS8ss0LP

— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 26, 2024

Two of Chelsea’s six worst attacking performances this Premier League season came in the last two games against Everton (1.17) and Fulham (0.95), according to Opta’s expected goals model. Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto struggled to gain consistent advantage in one-on-one situations, while Jackson, as usual, ran tirelessly with and without the ball for 73 minutes and had little to show.

With that in mind, it was surprising that Maresca made just one appearance on the bench, replacing the tiring Jackson for Christopher Nkunku with just over 15 minutes remaining. Chelsea’s head coach had voluntarily limited his options by making a “technical decision” to leave Noni Madueke out of his matchday squad, but Joao Felix, Marc Guiu and Cobham graduate Tyrique George were never seriously considered for a cameo appearance pulled.

“If you decide to use Marc, you have to replace the existing one and we have decided to replace Nico with Christo,” Maresca said. “Joao is more or less in the same position as Cole. In some games they already play together, but it also depends on the balance (between attack and defense).”

From left: Caicedo, Palmer, Colwill and Tosin react after Muniz’s late winner (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

It was a continuation of an emerging trend. Maresca has made just four substitutions in his last three Premier League games against Brentford, Everton and Fulham. His actions in recent weeks have been those of a coach who doesn’t fully trust the strength of his squad in difficult moments of important games (sorry, Conference League), even if he dismissed that suggestion in his press conference after Fulham’s defeat.

“I try to make changes when we see that those who start are not doing enough, and not make changes just for the sake of making changes,” he said. “Those who started did very well. Nico was a bit tired as he was sprinting a lot, so we decided to make a change, but until the last few minutes Pedro was fine, Jadon was fine, Cole was fine, Moi (Moises Caicedo) and Enzo (Fernandez) were both very good. So change for the sake of change? I don’t think it’s worth it.”

Maresca continued to trust that his Chelsea starting players would handle the second half properly and pushed for a second goal without taking too many risks. Silva took the opposite approach, bringing in Wilson, Muniz and Tom Cairney to breathe new life into Fulham’s attacking play in the closing stages of the game and was rewarded with two goals from his substitutes.

It’s been a sobering few days for those trying to talk Chelsea into serious Premier League title contenders. Maresca was never there and with that in mind a point from the games against Everton and Fulham will probably help him make his case that his team is a little ahead of schedule in terms of their league position.

The schedule remains favorable on paper well into 2025, pending a trip to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City on January 25, which now doesn’t feel nearly as intimidating as it once did. But future opponents will certainly look to incorporate elements of the defensive plan that helped Everton and Fulham derail Chelsea’s attacking momentum.

Chelsea are still learning how to overcome such challenges on the pitch. Part of that process could involve Maresca finding ways to positively influence the proceedings from the bench.

(Top photo: Maresca struggles to hide his frustrations. GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)