Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall - Enzo Maresca’s Faithful Ready to Prove Himself at Chelsea

Fresh from winning Leicester City's Player of the Season and their Players' Player of the Season, as the Foxes won the Championship to ensure their Premier League promotion, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's move to Chelsea sees his remarkable last year continue.

Having shone under Enzo Maresca, who also just joined Chelsea, throughout Leicester's sensational 2023/2024 campaign, the classy midfielder will relish reuniting with the tactically sophisticated Italian manager.

Arriving for a hefty £30 million fee on a five-year deal, Chelsea will be hoping Dewsbury-Hall can hit the ground running - a process that should be made quite smooth due to him being so familiar with Maresca’s system and him having plenty of previous Premier League experience. “It is amazing to be sitting here as a Chelsea player," Dewsbury-Hall told the Chelsea website.

"This is a club people grow up watching and hoping to one day play for, so it is a privilege to be here. I'm really excited to get going and can't wait to show everybody what I can do."

He then added this on how much he's relishing working under Maresca again: "He is fantastic. He is top. He completely changed the way Leicester wanted to play last season and we saw it worked. I personally fell in love with the way he wanted to play and I know a lot of the other lads did as well. I am very confident coming here that he is going to implement his style and that the lads are going to buy into it and are going to enjoy it.”

Intelligent, dynamic and possessing great awareness, his movement is an integral component of his armoury and provides him with an excellent foundation for success.

A huge threat with his devastating runs into the final third and into the box, he's a master at timing and directing his runs to get into quality positions to use his polished finishing skills. Often ghosting in completely undetected to emerge in the right place at the right time, he's sure to provide his colleagues with a super option.

A proficient scanner that's forever on the lookout for vacant spaces, he excels at finding room between the lines, in front of the opposition midfield line and wider in the half spaces as well.

Being so attentive and clever in his reading of the play, this, in combination with how well he surveys his surroundings, means he constantly provides colleagues with a viable outlet to support attacks.

Moreover, his spatial awareness also helps his team progress by forming positional and numerical superiorities all over to help them smoothly power up the pitch.

Very good at building relationships with his teammates and executing rotations, which he did superbly under Rodgers and Maresca, expect him to transfer these aspects to Stamford Bridge, with him brilliant at dovetailing to add unpredictability and variety to offensive passages.

Oozing creativity, imagination and incision with his passing, there's much to like about his aptitude here too.

A man for a pass to match almost any situation, Dewsbury-Hall's enviable range of passing and execution will see him breathe life into attacks with great regularity from dead balls and open play.

Be it feeding attackers with penetrative line-breaking passes, blasting booming switches of play, engaging in crafty link play to unlock backlines, striking measured crosses and cutbacks or launching through balls in behind, he's a major weapon.

Weighting his passes ideally so teammates can receive comfortably and accurately for them to inherit the ball on their preferred foot, adds to his worth. Just as how he smartly disguises his passes using his head and body posture does.

“He has the calmness that kind of player needs. He’s fantastic with the ball, he knows when to attack and what to give the team. He is so dangerous near the box and has the quality to score or assist from anywhere," explained Maresca.

Accompanying his impressive offensive contributions with his strong defensive output, he does a fine job of setting the tone with his aggressive pressing and intensity. Proving very effective at leading the press, forcing errors and turnovers, making life very uncomfortable for opponents and counterpressing with gusto after possession is lost, watch for him to flex his muscles on the stopping side too.

“He is very honest to the game. He has a great industry. He runs, works and presses, and he has quality. We said to him that, as a No. 8, his job is to create goals and score goals," former Foxes manager Rodgers insisted.

“He’s made a real impact with his honesty and quality. There is no question he has become a very important player for us — his intensity and urgency in the game. I felt we needed a freshness. He’s been relentless, really. You see his hunger and his desire and his quality.”

A real game-changer and difference-maker on both sides of the ball, Chelsea's acquisition of Dewsbury-Hall makes perfect sense for so many reasons.

"I'm a box-to-box midfielder. I am somebody who likes to attack, drive at defenders and make things happen with goals and assists. I will also give 100 percent for the team defensively and I am someone who overall can contribute in every aspect of the game,” stated Dewsbury-Hall.

"I think scoring more goals has been down to a combination of everything. I spoke to Enzo Maresca about adding more goals to my game and thought of methods to do it, and I have managed to do that."

While it'll be easier said than done to immediately cement himself in the Chelsea starting line-up, the fact he has previously excelled in the PL, plus has vast existing knowledge of Maresca's philosophy and is a proven performer within his framework, should give him every chance to shine.

Only time will tell, if he, in fact, can, but all the indicators are immensely promising.