Welcome to a new season of Onside/Offside! Luis Miguel Echegaray shares his point of view on the latest headlines in the soccer world, including standout performances, games you might have missed, what to keep an eye on in the coming days and of course, what deserved extra love and criticism. This week, a preview of Manchester United vs. Chelsea, Enzo Maresca’s tactics and Lionel Messi and Inter Miami’s trip to Atlanta United as MLS playoffs continue.
Man United and Chelsea face each other this Sunday at Old Trafford, and I think the clash will be cinema of the highest order. I’ll discuss Man United later in the column but for now, let’s look at Chelsea, and specifically their manager Enzo Maresca, who so far has done a remarkable job on and off the pitch.
As fans of the game, we judge success by what we see on the field, but what happens in those 90 minutes is a result of the work on the training ground. The top managers implement scenarios in training that translate to success in the games. It doesn’t always go as planned, but more frequently than not, a victory or solid performance draws from the lessons applied in good training. As the legendary, hall of fame NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said, “practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
Look at the top-four managers in the Premier League right now: Pep Guardiola, Arne Slot, Mikel Arteta and Unai Emery. All of them are obsessed with preparation and detail, and it’s their all-consuming hunt for perfection that separates them from everyone else. Maresca is cut from the same cloth. He is a hungry student of the game.
We know him most recently as a former assistant to Guardiola at Man City who then led Leicester City to a Championship title and promotion last season, but his managerial training began way before that. He was a former multi-purpose, traveled midfielder once coached under Carlo Ancelotti, Marcello Lippi and Manuel Pellegrini, who told him he could one day become a great coach.
He wrote a thesis comparing football to chess, as he was enamored with positional play and strategy. And that’s how his philosophy has quickly succeeded at Chelsea, the club with a million chess pieces. In his first season, he is giving structure and strategy to a squad that’s been dysfunctional recently. He has several players who are not just delivering, but becoming stars and one of them in particular — Cole Palmer — is in my opinion the best player in the league. Palmer is their most prized player.
Maresca’s tactics prioritize complete ball domination, but not just for the sake of possession. He wants wave after wave of attacking transition to overwhelm the opponents. There might be some risk as the team can be left exposed, but just like a Queen’s Gambit in chess (where one side sacrifices a pawn in order to gain control of the center of the board) the risk can result in reward.
Given the midweek loss to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup, it’s also worth remembering that Chelsea has a young and bloated squad while Maresca continues to rotate players amid a hectic schedule. Overall, though, especially with his current run in the Premier League, the Italian is managing a great season and the risks are paying off.
After winning game one at Chase Stadium last Friday, Messi and Inter Miami aim to conclude their first-round-best-of-three series this Saturday against Atlanta United and book a place in the Eastern Conference semifinals with either Orlando City or Charlotte FC.
Three more wins and Inter Miami will make their first ever MLS Cup appearance, and what’s even more appealing for their fans, they would host it. But Atlanta United — who fought hard to only keep it 2-1 in the first match, mainly thanks to their goalkeeper Brad Guzan — are not here to just make up the numbers. The 2018 MLS Cup champions will be hoping their home advantage propels them to victory, and if there is a crowd that can make a difference, it’s Atlanta’s.
Saturday night should be an electric atmosphere after Atlanta United announced it will open to full capacity, which is nearly 70,000 fans. The first reason for this is obvious: Lionel Messi. When he comes to town, everyone wants a ticket.
But there are other factors that will make Saturday night’s game a win for MLS. One of them is the city and the Atlanta United fanbase, who have a history of filling capacity at their stadium. In fact, it has done it nearly 30 times before this weekend. This season’s opener on March 9 against New England, for example, saw a crowd of 67,727 fans.
Another intriguing part of Saturday night’s narrative is that even though Messi and Inter Miami are coming to town, it is their own manager, Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who will attract a lot of attention. Martino delivered the aforementioned 2018 MLS Cup to Atlanta and will forever be revered in Georgia soccer. His winning project in Atlanta is a big reason for soccer’s continued growth in the surrounding areas. So much so that the city of Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta with a big growth of youth and local soccer, gave Martino the keys to the city, and that was before they won MLS Cup!
The reception he will get by the home fans in such a crucial game might just be as powerful as the ones they give Messi.
Man United finally acted. After a horrific start to the season, with the club in 14th place on only 11 points (seven points above the relegation zone) and just eight goals to their name, the Red Devils fired Erik ten Hag and signed Sporting’s Rúben Amorim, one of the best young managers in Europe. I thought this would never happen because the club’s leadership is more stubborn than Android users being asked to switch to an iPhone.
Why did this decision take so long? Part of the answer is in the ownership’s indecisiveness, which is what set this club to fail this season.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS SPORT, Sir David Brailsford, Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth — all of these executives are meant to represent not just a new era at United, but one that delivers focus and vision. But the delay in Ten Hag’s departure is the biggest example of why none of this is true.
The Dutch manager should have been gone in the summer, but last season’s FA Cup win over Man City bought him time with the leadership. Then, United spent $250 million in the summer on new signings, and now even more money has been spent on releasing Ten Hag as well as needing to trigger Amorim’s $11 million release clause.
All of it could have been avoided had the board reacted quicker.
Look, I’ll give credit where it’s due. Amorim is a great appointment. The 39-year-old is a good tactician, confident, great with the media and commanding inside the dressing room. He is also a pragmatist, which helps United because the club needs a team player right now. Sure, anyone who enters the league for the first time, especially at a club like Man United, can attract the thinking that this is also a gamble. But there are ignorant gambles and there are smart ones. This is the latter.
However, after all the money that has been spent to sign players and coaches, releasing Ten Hag and hiring Amorim, it’s a shame that a lot of this dilly-dallying could have been avoided altogether.
Valencia’s game with Real Madrid was postponed this weekend due to some tragic flash flooding in the region. To give you some context, a year’s worth of rain fell in the space of eight hours around the region, causing the worst flash floods in decades in Spain. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said on Thursday that all matches for this weekend in the Valencian region will be rescheduled, per the request made by LaLiga.
The Spanish government declared three days of mourning with at least 155 people dead and “many people” missing following this week’s torrential rain.
My thoughts go out to everyone affected by this tragedy.