Enzo Maresca on what he needs to do in the next 4 games | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has faced a battle to win over Chelsea fans since he arrived, not through any fault of his own.

He’s just taken a good job and a big upgrade from battling relegation with Leicester. Nobody can blame him for that. But the fact he was the latest coach appointed by the sporting directors and owners who have made so many changes already meant that patience was limited even before he’d stepped in the door.

The positive side of that is that he can win them around easily too – they don’t object to him, just the process which brought him in to replace Mauricio Pochettino rather unexpectedly at the end of last season.

He answered very honestly about his feelings on getting the home fans onside in the press conference ahead of the game against Barrow yesterday.

You can see the manager speaking in the clip embedded here, with this question coming after 4 minutes:

Asked if he got the sense that fans are getting behind him, he noted that it was always going to come down to results basically. Sentiment comes and sentiment goes, you’ve just got to make sure you win and everything else sorts itself out.

That’s why games like tonight’s are a little risky for him. He’s going to play a fully rotated team, as he should. But that risks a bad performance, which in turn undoes some of the confidence that’s been building up. We saw against Servette that the Blues are

Equally, it’s also a big chance to win over some doubters – chuck some Cobham kids out there, score a few goals in front of the Shed, and the Italian will see his stock continue to rise rapidly.

This is the first of 4 games in a row at Stamford Bridge. It’s a superb chance to get the whole place believing once again.