This Maresca tactic was “absolutely unbelievable” according to ESPN pundit | OneFootball

Frank Leboeuf was on ESPN last night and he didn’t hold back when he spoke about Chelsea’s performance.

He took aim at Enzo Maresca for some of his decisions in the game:

“I’m upset with Chelsea… Maresca’s tactic was absolutely unbelievable. We all know that Man City are not capable of dealing with counter attacks… but this guy allows players like Marmoush to go beyond them. The goals are because of that,” the former Chelsea defender said.

“So I blame the players because they should have scored… I’m not just angry because Man City won the game, I’m angry because Chelsea didn’t play well.”

After going ahead with an early goal from a City mistake, Maresca’s team looked incapable of controlling the game or creating proper chances and they allowed their opposition to regroup.

You can see Leboeuf speaking in the clip embedded here, with this answer coming after 7 minutes:

Maresca and his players fail in a big spot

Enzo Maresca arrives for a game. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

We couldn’t agree more – just like in the first game of this season, and just like in so many of our game against the bigger teams this season, the opposition were there for the taking and we let them off the hook.

We were timid, lacked leadership both spiritually and in simple football terms. In the end we got what we deserved, and you could almost sense the game going the way it did from very early on.

The team somehow managed to play high up the pitch and leave lots of space in behind for City to exploit, as Maresca said, as well as play in such a passive way as to not disrupt them and not make many attacking moves of our own after a solid opening period faded.