THE SHARPE END: Enzo Maresca’s first task at Chelsea? Find a goalkeeper who can pass, pass and pass! And who will be his metronome in midfield?

Enzo Maresca, then. From assistant under Pep Guardiola at Man City to winning the Championship with Leicester and soon to be at Stamford Bridge.

What can Chelsea fans expect from their exciting, if inexperienced, new boss when he arrives? What will change and where might he need to strengthen?

Maresca’s priority when he joined Leicester was to sign young Denmark goalkeeper Mads Hermansen. Maresca’s teams, like his mentor Guardiola’s, need a goalkeeper who can pass. A lot. 

When Maresca’s teams have the ball, the full-back tucks into midfield, the centre-back shuffles across and the keeper steps into the defensive line. 

It gives Maresca an extra body in a ‘box’ midfield to dominate central areas while keeping four players in defence who can play out. Yep, just like Pep.

PS

No keeper on record has ever made more passes in a Championship season than Hermansen (1,969) this term – and 75 per cent of them were played short.

Keeper conundrum 

The problem for Maresca is it’s not clear whether current keepers Robert Sanchez and Djordje Petrovic can do it. Under Pochettino, they were far less involved and played long much more often.

Who will be his Winks? 

Maresca is all about control. For that, you need the ball. Only Southampton and City had more possession in the top two tiers this season than Leicester.

And for that, he needs a midfield lynchpin. For Pep, it’s Rodri. For Maresca, it was former Spurs man Harry Winks.

Winks played 4,000 passes in the Championship at a staggering completion rate of 93 per cent. Who will it be at Chelsea?

You’d expect one of the £222million duo of Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo. Neither, though, completed passes at the rate or accuracy of Winks.