Chelsea are closing in on Leicester City over Enzo Maresca

Chelsea have made a formal approach to Leicester City about Enzo Maresca and are hoping to reach a deal for him to be their next head coach by the end of the week.

Chelsea are looking for a new head coach after the club and Mauricio Pochettino agreed to part ways last week following a review of the team’s performance throughout the season.

The process to identify Pochettino’s replacement was led by co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley – the duo who oversaw the Argentine manager’s review of the 2023-24 performance, which ended with a sixth-placed finish and European qualification.

This prompted Chelsea to make Maresca, who joined Leicester at the start of the season and helped guide them to promotion back in his first year in charge, a leading contender and ask him for permission to speak with him.

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

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

Kieran McKenna has emerged as an early favorite to succeed Pochettino after guiding Ipswich Town to the Premier League, while Thomas Frank’s work at Brentford also saw him highly regarded.

Maresca was Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City (Lindsey Parnaby / AFP via Getty Images)

Maresca was previously Pep Guardiola’s assistant manager at Manchester City, helping the side win a treble in the 2022-23 season that saw them secure the 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 just one managerial spell, a brief stint with Parma in Italy’s second tier at the start of the 2021-22 season, which ended in his sacking after four wins from his first 14 games.

He was also 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 team at AC Milan.

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

He first joined City as 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 oversaw a stylistic turnaround as Leicester City returned to the Premier League at the first time they claimed the Championship title.

The Italian is firmly committed to his coaching principles based on positional play and it’s no surprise that his style closely resembles that of Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola – given his time as Guardiola’s first-team assistant in 2022-23 treble-winning season.

Maresca’s 4-3-3 quickly becomes a 3-2-5 in possession as he asks a full-back (usually Ricardo Pereira) to come in to form a pivot double alongside former England midfielder Harry Winks – allowing #8 to push up. along with the wings and the central striker.

Similarly focused on building at the back, Maresca encourages goalkeeper Mads Hermansen to join the defensive line to create overloads and disrupt the opposing press. No goalkeeper in the Championship has had a lower ‘release rate’ – defined as passes longer than 40 meters – than Hermansen this season, which highlights Maresca’s willingness to be patient in possession.

Like a Guardiola side, Maresca wants his team to exercise territorial dominance and quickly regain possession when they lose it. As evidence of this, Leicester boasted the second-highest ground clearance (62 per cent) and the most possessions won in the attacking third (five per 90) of any team in the second tier in this season.

While some might point to a style that can be overly dogmatic at times, Maresca was quick to highlight the flexibility his side have shown since arriving at newly relegated Leicester last summer.

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

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