Nine Chelsea players Enzo Maresca should look to upgrade this summer
The pressure is growing on Enzo Maresca at Chelsea after just two wins in their last nine Premier League games has seen them drop dramatically from The Title Race to become outsiders in the race for Champions League qualification.
We’re far from convinced by Maresca but this mess of a squad isn’t his doing, with first Todd Boehly and now the dynamic duo of Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart responsible.
The club has spent around £1.5bn on players under the new owners and having looked like they were getting somewhere before Christmas, we’re all now once again asking what the bloody hell they’ve got to show for that extraordinary outlay.
They will no doubt throw money at the problem once again in the summer, and we reckon these nine players currently in the squad should either be discarded or upgraded.
Robert Sanchez
Not only are his five errors leading to a goal the most of any player in the Premier League this season, that’s also the most on record by a Chelsea player in an entire campaign; we’re in February. The last of those errors came against Manchester City, when he lost possession 19 times.
Enzo Maresca insisted he still “trusts” him and weirdly asked “how many times Moi [Caicedo] missed a pass?” in defence of his goalkeeper, wilfully ignorant of the difference between a goalkeeper and midfielder making a mistake, before dropping in him for fellow unconvincing goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen.
Perhaps because the club was so badly burned by £72m Kepa Arrizabalaga, goalkeeper is the only position they’re seemingly dead-set against spending big money on, despite no Premier League side ever winning the title without a top stopper.
Levi Colwill
Jamie Carragher reckons Colwill could do with “a good meal” and Gary Neville says he “needs to be stronger”, and we’re fully on board with the idea of him filling out and being able to give as good as he gets from strikers, which definitely isn’t currently the case.
We’re also just not convinced he’s that good. He looked great on loan at Brighton and we could see during that period why Liverpool thought he could be their long-term Virgil van Dijk replacement. But they’re surely not thinking that now.
He doesn’t seem to do any of the switches of play, risky passes or drives into midfield that we saw at the Amex, and without the physicality required to be an Old-Fashioned Defender, he’s more of a hindrance to Chelsea than a help.
To be clear, we’re not writing Colwill off and it would be lovely to see a side built around a Cobham graduate, but it’s hard to watch Chelsea games without thinking they’re missing a brilliant centre-back that they hoped Colwill would (and maybe still will) become.
Wesley Fofana
We rather enjoyed his early season performances. It was just nice to see a good footballer actually playing football. Until he wasn’t again.
Fofana’s missed the last 22 games in all competitions with a hamstring injury having made just 32 appearances for Chelsea since joining in the summer 0f 2022. He simply cannot be relied upon.
Marc Cucurella
There are plenty of reasons why he should be adored by Chelsea fans – the Sideshow Bob hair, his aggression, he’s a winner, fans of other clubs think he’s a d*ck because he is a bit of a d*ck – but Cucurella often leaves us wanting more.
We don’t know whether that’s unfair, if it’s the Maresca system hampering him somewhat, or perhaps it’s mostly to do with him assisting the winner vs England in the Euro 2024 final having excelled in the tournament as a whole and looking nowhere near as threatening a player in Chelsea blue before or since. There’s no perhaps about it actually, that’s definitely it.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
Somebody should have told him. A mate, a partner, a parent, anyone should have sat him down, put a hand on his shoulder and asked: “Kiernan, I know you like him, but do you really think Papa Maresca is going to play you ahead of a £222m midfield duo?”
It must be incredibly frustrating for him to not be playing football when he’s clearly good enough to be playing week in, week out for a Premier League side, and it will feel particularly unfair when Chelsea recoup most if not all of the £30m they paid Leicester last summer when they sell him at the end of a wasted season.
MORE CHELSEA COVERAGE ON F365
👉 Chelsea ready to pay Liverpool asking price for star ‘unwilling’ to sign new contract
👉 Chelsea man who ‘needs to do more’ berated by legend in X-rated rant: ‘Be on the f***ing pitch!’
👉 Maresca destroyed for creating ‘f***ing disaster’ as Chelsea ‘have no clue what they’re doing’
Enzo Fernandez
He’s been much, much better this season; genuinely brilliant in some games. But we don’t think we’re asking too much in wanting the most expensive midfielder of all time to be very good in all games and brilliant in some; he still goes missing far too often.
There is also still a question mark as to whether he would even be in Chelsea’s best team, with a midfield pairing of Moises Caicedo and Lavia covering more bases.
Jadon Sancho
After an all-too brief period in which it looked as though Sancho would be one of the many Manchester United defectors to illustrate it wasn’t the player but their former club that was to blame for things not panning out, he’s slipped into the frustrating habits that led to his downfall at Old Trafford.
For a guy famed for his dynamism and dribbling menace he isn’t half boring to watch and we assume incredibly easy to defend right now, almost always turning back and recycling the ball rather than running at his man.
Mykhaylo Mudryk
The transfer poster boy of the Clearlake reign, whose impact at Chelsea since they hijacked his proposed move to Arsenal can be summed up by no-one really caring or even noticing that he’s currently suspended having failed a drugs test.
Christopher Nkunku
The Chelsea bosses are probably a bit nervous about Nkunku now having to play in the absence of Nicolas Jackson, because based on what we’ve seen so far from the Frenchman in the Premier League, his value – which has remained high while he’s watched from the bench – is only going to go in one direction as he sulks his way through games.
