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Enzo Mariska is under pressure at Chelsea and is not helping himself after failing to win his side’s statement over Liverpool…
Even as a neutral, it has been a pain to watch Chelsea One step forward and two steps back under head coach Mariska.
After taking over ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, Mariska The club has enjoyed tremendous highs, including victories in the World Cup and Europa League, although those moments have been marred by a number of poor performances and dips in form.
One such run came in September when Chelsea’s only victory in five games came against League One side Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup, although that resulted in a four-game winning streak that ended with their latest low against Sunderland at the weekend.
The loss to Sunderland has reopened the Mariska sack talk It will certainly reach a new level if Chelsea lose to Spurs after facing Wolves in the Carabao Cup in midweek.
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The high point of Chelsea’s recent surge was their 2-1 win against Premier League holders Liverpool, which felt like a real turnaround for the Blues.
At this point, the Blues fully deserved the three points and Mariska’s attack-minded substitution allowed them to go in the way of Estevao’s last-gasp winner.
It was an example of Mariska’s game decisions improving Chelsea, but that doesn’t always happen.
You only have to go back to the 2-1 loss against Man Utd around a week ago to see how badly Mariska could be misjudged, with the head coach’s absurd three substitutions, more damaging than Robert Sanchez’s early red card at half-time.
And there was further evidence of Mariska’s mismanagement at the weekend as Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto were withdrawn and replaced by inexperienced substitutes Andre Santos and Tyreke George before Chamsdine Talby’s last-gasp winner, featuring exasperated club legend John Obi-Michael.
“I think the manager will be very disappointed with how we lost the game,” Mikel said on the Obi-Wan podcast.
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“I never criticize Enzo Marisca, I’m a big fan of him. But I just thought that when we were chasing this game, to win this game when it was 1-1, at home… you can’t take your best players out.
“You can’t replace your best players. It doesn’t matter if you’re not playing that well.
“Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto, they weren’t playing that well. But you leave those players on the pitch and they’ll find a way to create chances, they’ll find a way to win the game.
“I just thought for him to substitute Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto, after that substitution it was just flat, absolutely flat. There was nothing, we couldn’t offer anything.”
He added: “When you’re taking these players off and coming into the game with a lot of inexperience, I think it’s going to take a little bit of time to get into the game.
“Bring them in when we’re winning games, when there’s less pressure. Don’t bring these young players in when we’re chasing games and it’s tight.”
Mariska has a tough gig at Chelsea as it is unclear whether his transfer decision is fit enough to succeed on the pitch, but when games are on a knife’s edge they are no longer helping his situation.
