Like most of us, Jadon Cundy has been frustrated by Enzo Maresca’s decisions at times this season. But the pundit was happy to praise the Italian for one decision he made late on on Thursday night.
“He brought on Tosin and went to a back five. We basically said to Spurs ‘you’re going to have the ball, we’re not going to give you space in behind, we’re not going to allow you counter,'” the former Chelsea player said on his TalkSport show.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen Maresca make a big, bold decision that’s saying I’m now going to change tactics the way I set up. I’ve got [Pedro] Neto down the middle, so I’ve still got that threat of the pace over the top. I thought we dealt with hit really well.
“Maresca showed a different way of managing this Chelsea team. We are guilty of times of being a bit naive in-game… Last night, I felt there was a bit of a maturity about Maresca and I was really pleased to see he’s gone I’m going to be stubborn, sit in, break us down if you can.”
We’re inclined to agree – Maresca has been incredibly stubborn at times, and despite claiming that he shapes his game-plan to the opponent, has made some really head-scratching decisions at times. On Thursday we saw him willing to play a more direct style, and also make these pragmatic changes at the end.
You can see Cundy make his point in the clip embedded here:
Maresca called subs a “mistake” because of dodgy timing
Ironically, after the game Maresca said he had actually made a “mistake” in those changes because he made them too early. He brought on Tosin to shut up shop as an extra central defender – then saw there were a full 12 minutes to come as injury time.
That meant his team were on the back foot defending for a little longer than he had intended, but they got through it in the end.
