How Enzo Maresca can learn from key Thomas Tuchel trait to overcome potential Chelsea issue | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel's 18 months at Chelsea was one of huge success following Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup silverware.

After just over four months in charge of Chelsea having succeeded fan-favourite and club legend Frank Lampard, who was reluctantly dismissed by former owner Roman Abramovich, Tuchel claimed Champions League glory to clinch the club's second European trophy.

Tuchel followed it up with the Super Cup and Club World Cup, the latter securing the club's 'we've won it all' slogan to complete the trophy cabinet of all of the possible major club competition honours.

Despite parting company with the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership in September 2022, Tuchel's time was a rounding success. It saw him rejuvenate many players at Stamford Bridge, including Antonio Rudiger,

It saw Chelsea compete at the highest of levels under Tuchel and during that time they also lost several finals. What Tuchel and his Chelsea side won, it could've and should've been much more.

Tuchel kissing the Champions League trophy in Porto back in 2021. / IMAGO / PA Images

Several managers have come and gone since Tuchel's departure, including Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino, now it's Maresca's time in the dugout at Stamford Bridge. In his first campaign so far, he remains in the race for the top four and winning the Conference League, a competition they are heavy favourites to win.

It's seen the 45-year-old rotate minutes across his squad across the competitions, regularly dubbed 'A' and 'B' sides, although the Chelsea head coach has continually played down the notion of having two sides.

Several players who were preferred for cup minutes rather than in the Premier League, including Axel Disasi, Renato Veiga and Joao Felix, departed in January on either loan or permanent transfers, which has provided Maresca with several selection decisions heading into the final months of the season.

Now Matt Law of the Daily Telegraph, speaking on the London Is Blue Podcast, has revealed a story about Tuchel and how Maresca could learn from the now England national team head coach.

"When Tuchel was manager, someone at Chelsea behind the scenes pulled me aside one day and said 'you need to look at how good this guy is managing the squad.' And I said 'what do you mean?'. And they said 'just look at the minutes he's giving everybody. Everybody, the squad love him because everybody feels involved. Nobody feels left out.

"He was giving people really, really meaningful minutes, even players sometimes like Ross (Barkley) occasionally and stuff would get on with like 20, 30 minutes to go and other people would and he would rotate them in for matches as well.

Cole Palmer (right) was rested for the Conference League league phase to manage his workload, which saw other attackers be provided with opportunities. / IMAGO / Sportimage

"I see problems from earlier squad management in the season when I thought he (Maresca) was being clever and in actual fact in the long run maybe it hasn't been quite so clever. And whether that's inexperience, he's never coached in the top leagues before, he's never married up a league season with a European season, he's never tried to keep a squad of international players happy before. It could well just be inexperience and it could be something he learns from very quickly, but I think he's paying a bit of the price for that at the moment."

Maresca will continue to gain experience week by week and Chelsea will hope that's enough to clinch a Champions League qualification spot come the end of the season. The 45-year-old has received the public backing of the hierarchy this week and now Maresca must deliver on his words as he completed, what he hopes, the first of many seasons at Stamford Bridge.