Chelsea make approach to Leicester over Maresca

Chelsea have made an official approach to Leicester City over Enzo Maresca and hope to strike a deal for him to be their next head coach by the end of the week.

Chelsea are searching for a new head coach after the club and Mauricio Pochettino mutually agreed to part ways last week following a review into the team’s performance over the season.

The process of identifying Pochettino’s replacement has been conducted by co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley — the duo that oversaw the review into the Argentine coach’s 2023-24 performance which ended with a sixth-place finish and European qualification.

That has led to Chelsea making Maresca, who joined Leicester at the start of the season and helped guide them to promotion back to the top flight in his first year in charge, a leading candidate and asking for permission to speak to him.

Any move will need both clubs to settle on a compensation figure with the Italian under contract at King Power Stadium until 2026.

Once agreed the expectation is that discussions with the 44-year-old will take place in the coming days with a minimum of a two-year contract on offer at Stamford Bridge.

Kieran McKenna became an early favourite to succeed Pochettino after guiding Ipswich Town to the Premier League, while Thomas Frank’s work at Brentford has also seen him considered highly.

Maresca previously served as an assistant manager to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, contributing to the team’s treble win in the 2022-23 season, which saw them secure Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup titles.

His style of play is similar to that of Guardiola. Prior to his appointment at Leicester, he had only one managerial stint, a brief period with Parma in Italy’s second tier at the start of the 2021-22 season, which ended with his dismissal after four wins from his opening 14 games.

He also served as an assistant manager to Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham United in 2018 and has a 30-year friendship with former Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi, dating back to their time in the youth setup at AC Milan.

During his playing career, Maresca represented clubs such as West Bromwich Albion, Juventus, Fiorentina, Olympiacos, Málaga, Sampdoria, Palermo, and Hellas Verona, before retiring in 2017.

He first joined City as the manager of the elite development squad in 2020, returning in the summer of 2022 as part of the first-team set-up.

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How Maresca likes his teams to play

Analysis by Mark Carey

Enzo Maresca has overseen a stylistic change as Leicester City have returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking as Championship title winners.

The Italian is staunchly dedicated to his coaching principles based on positional play, and it is hardly surprising that his style closely resembles that of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City — given his time as Guardiola’s first-team assistant during the 2022-23 treble-winning season.

Maresca’s 4-3-3 quickly becomes a 3-2-5 in possession as he asks a full-back (typically Ricardo Pereira) to come inside to form a double pivot alongside former England midfielder Harry Winks — allowing his No 8s to push high alongside the wingers and central striker.

Similarly focused on building out from the back, Maresca encourages goalkeeper Mads Hermansen to join the defensive line to create overloads and disrupt the opposition press. No Championship goalkeeper had a lower “launch rate” — defined as passes longer than 40 yards — than Hermansen this season, which highlights Maresca’s desire to be patient in possession.

Much like a Guardiola side, Maresca is keen for his team to exert territorial dominance and quickly retrieve possession when they lose it. As evidence of this, Leicester boasted the second-highest field tilt (62 per cent) and most possessions won in the attacking third (five per 90) of any side in the second tier this season.

While some may point to a style that can be overly dogmatic at times, Maresca has been quick to highlight the flexibility his side have shown since he arrived at a newly relegated Leicester last summer.

“The players have really surprised me in terms of how they adapt and how they can change the structure during the game,” Maresca said. “I think there have been many games this season where we started in one way and finished in another way.”

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(Top photo: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)