'You'd die for him' - Marc Cucurella claims Chelsea were wrong to sack Enzo Maresca

Despite securing silverware under Maresca, the Chelsea hierarchy opted for a managerial change in January, replacing the Italian with Liam Rosenior. Since then, the Blues have struggled immensely, winning only four of their last 12 matches and crashing out of the Champions League following an 8-2 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. Cucurella believes the club is now paying the price for a lack of experience and the disruption of a tactical process that had finally begun to click after 18 months of development.

Speaking to The Athletic, Cucurella stated: "With Enzo Maresca in charge, we were more stable, because we worked together for 18 months. If you look at our first pre-season with him, there were doubts. You need a process for every player to understand what we need to do. In our last months with Maresca, we played almost by heart. If we changed the system, we knew what we had to do. You need that time.

"When a manager gives you that confidence and offers you a platform to fight for titles, you’d die for him. The moment Maresca left, it had a big impact on us. These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision."

The defender pointed to the stability found at rival clubs as a blueprint Chelsea should have followed. He noted that the decision to introduce a new manager mid-season - without the benefit of a full pre-season - created a chaotic environment where players had no time to digest new tactical ideas on the training ground.

Cucurella added: "The instability around the club comes from this, in a nutshell. We had a caretaker (former under-21s coach Calum McFarlane) first, then a new manager, with new ideas and no time to work on them. To make a change like that, the best thing is to wait until the end of the season. You would give everyone, the players and the new manager, time to get ready, have a full pre-season… Look at Arsenal now, who are fighting for every trophy. They’ve been with [Mikel] Arteta for almost seven years and they have not won much. But that trust in the project gives rewards."

Chelsea face a relentless April schedule starting with an FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale on April 4, followed by high-stakes Premier League clashes against Manchester City, Manchester United, and Brighton. The gauntlet continues into May with potentially season-defining fixtures against Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Sunderland, leaving Rosenior with almost no time to implement the tactical process that Cucurella craves.