What Enzo Maresca’s WhatsApp profile photo tells you about his football philosophy | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca did an interesting interview with Corriere della Sera in his native Italy today which had some relatively revealing answers from the sometimes bluff Chelsea boss.

The intro to the chat reveals that the coach’s WhatsApp profile photo is a quote from Johan Cruyff.

Maresca and Cruyff aligned on football philosophy – in one way

Enzo Maresca celebrates with the Conference League trophy. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

“It is statistically proven that during a match, a player’s average ball possession is 3 minutes. This means that his value is determined by what he does in the other 87 minutes.”

Now we’re hardly ones to question the genius of Cruyff, but it strikes us that there’s another way to look at it – if a player is only on the ball for 3 minutes, then you want players who will make the most of those 3 minutes, and can produce magic from their fleeting moments in the spotlight.

But Maresca sees it in the same way as the Dutch master, as he explained:

“It’s a maxim by Johan Cruyff. I had it written on the walls of the Leicester dressing room two summers ago, and we won the Championship. Of course, I did it at Chelsea, too, and it didn’t go badly this year either.”

Maresca says he had no challenges from Chelsea players

The interviewer has the same view as us, and asks Maresca if there had been any challenge of it from the players – hadn’t anyone pointed out that this stat means that “champions solve games with a [single] play?”

Maresca claimed he hadn’t had any pushback so far:

“Maybe they discussed it among themselves, but I didn’t hear a single protest. The phrase needs to be understood. It doesn’t minimize the importance of talent, but it underlines how you can make yourself useful even when you don’t see the ball much.”