“Four number tens and no striker” – Chelsea’s terrible transfers mean Maresca should get another season says Sky pundit | OneFootball

It’s never a good sign when your team is getting the “how to fix Team X” treatment on the lowdown, but unfortunately that’s where we’re at with Enzo Maresca and Chelsea right now.

Since Christmas their season has been falling apart, and it’s become a question of whether they can hold things together just enough to stumble over the line into 5th place and secure a Champions League place, or whether they pull off a remarkable choke job for a team who looked almost guaranteed to make the top 5 back in December.

Sky Sports’ “The Lowdown” looked at the Blues, with some help from Matisse Broderick.

You can see their discussion in the  clip embedded here:

Squad building has let down Maresca – who deserves plenty of blame himself

Matisse Broderick speaking about Chelsea on Sky Sports.

Broderick set his stall out early – he wouldn’t sack Enzo Maresca, because he thinks the problems have come from above him:

“Last summer, you’re signing Joao Felix, you’re signing Renato Veiga, you’re signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, tying up yourself in PSR problems,” Broderick said.

“You’re then loaning out these players months later. That’s not a project, for me. I’m looking at the squad balance, starting the season with four number 10s… but there’s no [backup] striker for Jackson. There’s no option to even rotate apart from an 18 year old Guiu… the goalkeeping situation wasn’t rectified.”

He’s spot on with all of that, and frankly that’s just the start. You could look back at almost every window we’ve had under these owners and point to major mistakes. We would say that even the appointment of Maresca (and the appointment of Graham Potter before him) were mistaken.

The fact that we effectively sacked Mauricio Pochettino to get Maresca in also looks an error at this point. We would have finished in the top 5 at least had Pochettino stayed this season.