Enzo Maresca has made an astonishing admission about Liverpool as he prepares to pit his wits against them at Anfield this afternoon.
The Chelsea manager has enjoyed a promising start to life with the Blues, who came into this weekend fourth in the Premier League table, having not lost domestically since the opening matchday.
Speaking ahead of today’s match, the 44-year-old revealed how he used Jurgen Klopp’s Reds as a template to study as he set out on his own coaching career.
Maresca said (via Daily Mail): “Four or five years ago when I finished playing and started as a manager, I watched 38 games of Liverpool in one week to study and to analyse how they were with the previous manager.
“I really know Liverpool players because I watched them many, many, many times. That team, the first one, two, three years of Klopp, the way they were pressing was especially good because of [Mo] Salah, [Bobby] Firmino and [Sadio] Mane, so it is not only about on the ball.
“It was off the ball; the way they were aggressive was something unbelievable. I really like Salah, not only because he is good on the ball but because he is a fantastic player also off the ball.”
Although the Liverpool team that Maresca watched religiously bears little resemblance to the one that he’ll face today, with many of the personnel from our 2019/20 Premier League-winning side having moved elsewhere, his admiration for the Reds seems evident from his startling admission.
As noted by Glen Johnson, Arne Slot hasn’t completely ripped up the template which served Klopp so well, but rather tweaked it gently to add a certain freshness while remaining true to many of his predecessor’s core values.
The Chelsea boss has come up against LFC once before – he was in charge of Leicester when they took an early lead at Anfield in the Carabao Cup last season before the home side fought back to win 3-1, their first step towards eventual victory in the final against the 44-year-old’s current club.
Maresca will no doubt have been watching Slot’s Liverpool closely during the international break, but while formulating a plot to thwart them is one thing, implementing it is another. For both managers today, this fixture presents one of the sternest tests they’ve had in their first season with their respective sides.
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