Enzo Maresca has impressed with the performance of Chelsea star Christopher Nkunku
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca is set to assign new roles to French midfielder Christopher Nkunku in the upcoming season. The West London club has completed two weeks of training at Cobham and will fly to the USA for pre-season friendlies next week, according to Metro.
Chelsea signed Nkunku from RB Leipzig last summer with high expectations, but he suffered a major injury during pre-season training that required knee surgery, keeping him out until December. The former Paris Saint-Germain academy graduate made his Chelsea debut against Newcastle United in the quarterfinals of the EFL Cup under then-manager Mauricio Pochettino.
The Argentine manager used Nkunku in the attacking line, and the Frenchman helped the Blues score three goals in his 11 Premier League appearances. Pochettino deployed Nkunku on the left flank and as a number nine, where he performed decently. However, recurring injuries limited Nkunku to just 14 appearances across all competitions last season.
After a two-week training assessment at Cobham, Enzo Maresca has been impressed with Nkunku’s performance. The Italian manager announced that he would assign multiple positions to the Frenchman in the upcoming season. Maresca made this announcement during his first pre-season press conference in Santa Clara on Tuesday (h/t Metro).
“He can play everywhere, he can play everywhere. He’s one of the players that in these two weeks [of pre-season] is doing very, very well. He is already taking the way we want to play, that is important. As I said, these kind of players for me, they can play winger, they can play attacking midfielder, they can play No.9, they can play in different positions. What we are going to try is to try to have players that they can play in different positions, that’s the way I see the football, and also that’s the way I like to work every day to try to improve players and help them not only play in one position, [but] that they can play in different positions.”
Maresca to assign new positions for the players
Last season, Pochettino assigned the attacking midfielder role to Cole Palmer, a move that proved game-changing for Chelsea. The English forward thrived in the position, finding spaces in the middle of the park and becoming the top scorer for the club.
Chelsea’s new manager, Maresca, plans to explore various options in new positions. At Leicester City, the Italian manager repositioned players and achieved better results in the Championship. Maresca aims to replicate this tactic at Chelsea, experimenting with players in different positions.
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Maresca is particularly impressed with Nkunku and may use him as a primary striker in the upcoming season. Nkunku has already demonstrated his scoring ability and has impressed his new manager in training. The tactician will test his ideas during pre-season games before finalizing player positions for the upcoming season. Maresca might also adjust his summer transfer strategies based on the outcomes of the pre-season matches.
