Oluwaseun 🇳🇬

Spurs v Chelsea yeah?...

Let's take a look at what to expect from Spurs and how to beat them.

Mini Thread 

Spurs are going through a lot of inconsistencies right now. They beat Mancity 4-0 at the Etihad and drew to Fulham at home and lost to Bournemouth. You can also talk about the fact that their CB depth is on their last knees being a good reason for that. But then it's not all 

The way Spurs play as we all know is to invert the Fullbacks(both) centrally in the build up and they advance into the half spaces and make late runs into the box in the final third. 

Ange prioritizes Overloads in the half spaces and men in the box. So naturally the first thing we can exploit is winning the ball in the build-up. Spurs aren't the most secure on the ball. Udogie is more than Porro but then they aren't the most secure. 

Because of the space left by the Fullbacks, when you win the ball in these areas with a good press, Spurs are left open to Transition against. 

As much as City were decimated, they didn't take their chances as they carved Spurs open in  the first Half but couldn't put their passes against
Away. Chelsea have been one of the best at playing through if you press them in settled play and more clinical. 

Like the switch you saw there. Chelsea would be switching it to more capable 1v1 wingers who can eat up space and  threaten the goal with shots or crosses/cutback. And the thing about Spurs is they give lots of space out wide. They defend narrow like Villa so you can get 1v1s 

Spurs are also not compact at all in their block. There is space to exploit.l, out wide and in the pockets. City tried to use rotations to create space for their widest players and then put passes into the half spaces. Im still surprised City just didnt score. 

If you give Chelsea these spaces in the pockets enough for Palmer and Jackson to receive where Haaland received the ball here, Chelsea will hurt you. Latest evidence was against Villa who even have a more compact block.
https://x.com/ChelseaFC/status/1863343414525178240/video/1 

Last but not least is Spurs's Highline. We know how Ange loves his Highline to be able to press opposition teams but when they bypass the press, there is enough space in behind to exploit. Jackson made use of it last year and. Chelsea played a similar team in Brighton

So I would say we're set for a highline if Spurs play it. It's about burying your chances and considering we have one of the best conversion rates in the league(hoping missing 7 big chances v Soton didn't have too much impact), we should be able to take them. 

If Spurs are to play the same way which they probably will as they won't want to shy away, especially at home. They will back themselves and Ange also mentioned the fact that they've been performing against big teams so they will take the game to us.

Spurs's main threat in attack is Kulusevski he's been one of their best players. This season, Ange has deployed him more centrally with Johnson at RW. Kulu's ball carrying dribbling and passing ability are huge threats, he shouldn't get time on the ball. Why I see Lavia start 

A Caicedo-Lavia pivot or Caicedo inverting from RB because of 
Enzo's form could mean all 3 could start, if you also consider Spurs have a pretty fairly physical midfield of Sarr and Bissouma and Kulusevski central, Madison central top. Lavia is someone that I would bring back in 

Spurs are threats on the counter because of Kulusevski and Son too. So we have to be wary, but I trust our rest defence enough to limit them to few chances at least enough to just concede 1 goal.

Spurs play out of the back no matter what. A good M2M press helps us win the ball high, Spurs's threat on the counter is apparent if we don't get the ball though, That's the threat as I mentioned so it has to be aggressive when we do press M2M. Spurs exploited City  like that 

Another attacking threat not mentioned is Johnson's back post runs. Usually Werner picks him out when he comes on. But I also trust Cucurella to handle that as he's incredible tracking runs to the back post.

I believe, Chelsea will have too much for Spurs, the way Spurs play fits Chelsea's style to exploit and I don't see how they keep them out especially with the defensive injuries. 

Predictions- 3-1 

Chelsea v Brentford

Chelsea's ability to Counter Press and sustain pressure was the big difference against Brentford

Importance of Sanchez to stifle Brentford's plans

Tactical Review

Thread

Chelsea lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Noni coming in for the suspended Neto and Gusto coming back into the side, Tosin coming in for Badiashille as well. Brentford line up in a 5-3-2 as expected with Wissa and Mbeumo up top
https://x.com/MobyChe/status/1867935766942187619 

Brentford's plan was to set up their 5-3-2 mid-lowblock against Chelsea with simply the aim of stopping them from scoring. I mean, seeing how teams have been torn apart when they are open against us, who wouldn't? 

That's why as i also predicted, as Maresca tends to do against a back 5 or a low block, play his diamond midfield formation. Yesterday, Cole was the tip of the diamond, behind Jackson, Enzo was on the right, Cucurella inverted from LB into the LHS and Caicedo was at the base. 
https://x.com/MobyChe/status/1867987698851463335

Again for clarity, whats the aim guys? Overloads. have more numbers than Brentford's players where you want it and we will come back to how it paid off in a second. Can you see the last line, 6 Chelsea players attacking the last line, But credit to Brentford, they tried to match us every single time, because you can see, they had to match us 6v6

This can be risky against Brentford because when Brentford counter you and gets the ball to Mbeumo and Wissa then you have issues but when Brentford are this deep, it also plays in your favour because it means they have fewer numbers in forward areas, everyone is defending, 

the only Brentford player not in this shot is Wissa and he had to come back to defend a few seconds later

So, if Chelsea were to face a low block, what was the plan to break them down?

Cross, Cross, Cross, Cross again and then again, and then some more and a little more.

Chelsea finished the game with 34 crosses, in pale comparison to Brentford's which was 18, I remember saying before the game, Limit Brentford's crossing numbers and you limit balls to Wissa and Mbuemo, which we did. Chelsea averaged 15 crosses per game before this game
https://x.com/MobyChe/status/1867986486965973344

Maresca is big on where these crosses are coming from and doesn't just cross from nowhere for crossing sake, we tend to take loads of our crosses from these 2 locations, the Half space and from deep on the wing, then just to be thorough, cutbacks. Let's examine them

Half space crosses

Colwill and Gusto were the outside CBs in possession, positioned to receive the ball directly from the wingers because of how high Enzo and Cucurella were to pin Brentford's low block down. so they had the chance to put in the ball from these locations
Notice their positioning.

Now let's see it in action. Notice another thing here? the number of Chelsea players attacking the box. because we had 6 attacking the box, we had men free, enough men to threaten Brentford if a cross came in right
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602828186657046/video/1

Seam Runs

Enzo and Cucu's positions meant they were meant to be running into the space off the wingers and get into positions to cross, Seam Runs.
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602833018425504/video/1

populated

Chelsea scored from this and it is something Noni has been showing for weeks, beautiful cross and Chelsea once again populated the box well and Cucurella ended up scoring a beautiful header
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602837783208035/video/1

Just Cole being Cole

Sometimes we also just created centrally, Palmer finding a pocket of space, attracting players unto him and freeing someone else. Sancho here also puts in a cutback as well
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602843508421006/video/1

Now we've highlighted the way Chelsea created chances against Brentford, now how did we sustain pressure and make them break, COUNTER PRESSING, one of the key things for Chelsea in this game is how well they were going to put Brentford under pressure because, do it long enough and they fold, I mentioned this pre-match
https://x.com/MobyChe/status/1867987515510296998

So like I said, Brentford defending so deep in numbers meant there wasn't enough to counter easily, but Chelsea players were extremely aggressive through out the game, being first to throughout balls, Caicedo was outstanding in this regard. winning 2 tackles(which looked like more tbh) and making 4 interceptions. Enzo won 3, Gusto and Cucurell won 2 each and more, everyone pulled their weight

Our CBs were closely marking Wissa and Mbuemo whenever they dropped deep. Colwill had an outstanding performance and gave Mbeumo a hard time all game, overpowered him in different instances, we aggressively won the ball and sustained pressure
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602848663236984/video/1

Another thing that helped us to sustain pressure was the way we also retained possession, our wingers were key to this, Sancho, Sancho lost the ball only 14 times, and Noni had the least with only losing the ball 10 times.
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602853331464638/video/1 

Now Let's talk about Brentford, they tried to press us when we had the ball from GKs or recycle the ball to Sanchez. They went man to man hard and aggressively. Brentford CBs stepping up to mark Chelsea's men as far as in midfield. it was aggressive as they saw a mistake in us, they particularly pressed Sanchez hard(no surprise) but Sanchez handled it well and just booted it away with the aim of trying to find a longer ball to Jackson more quickly when that happened

Jackson actually did well to win those longer balls, winning half of his duels, 4/8 when those happened to help us get up the pitch, as we didnt force playing out of the back every time 

Also, when BRE got out of the Counter press and tried to release Mbuemo and Wissa early, Sanchez's aggressive positioning and ability to sweep balls were so key. He stopped BRE from getting chances from Counters
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868582373039976629/video/1

Aside from those, Brentford varied their attack with short and long build-ups but because of Chelsea's press, they went along a lot in the 1st half of which Chelsea had to continuously fight with BRE for 2nd balls and we did well enough winning almost 50-50 of the duels against one of the leagues most physical teams even without Lavia, even winning more aerial duels. Tosin was massively key to this, winning a staggering 7/7 of his Aerial duels

Chelsea's press did the rest for shorter build-ups, a M2M pressing structure allowed us to pin BRE in their half and win the ball, I remember saying they have a lot of mistakes in them trying to build up short
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602857982923138/video/1

BRE love to get crosses into their dangerous forward men but Chelsea limited them, but when they did, Sanchez made 6 high claims, his ability to claim crosses limited their setpiece threat too.
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602862173086087/video/1

An important thing Sanchez did after stopping such is counter BRE really fast because they didn't want BRE to settle in their low block so they quickly attacked, we saw more of it in the 2nd half when BRE tried to get a goal
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868592173618463082/video/1

Chelsea's willingness to attack quickly was the same after winning the ball, when we pressed harder in the 2nd half and counter-pressed, won the ball, we looked to attack quickly and got big chances from it and scored from Jackson
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602866401001622/video/1

Chelsea were dominant for just over 70mins then BRE tried to put Chelsea under pressure more, Chelsea players felt it and put in dangerous crosses into the box, that period they put in more crosses than at any point in the game
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602870842716546/video/1

Brentford had also been trying to threaten Chelsea from behind. Sanchez had been stopping them prior to then but They finally got it right for the goal. The defending from Chelsea to mark 2 men was poor.
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1868602875276112086/video/1

Chelsea then had that spell in the last period of the 2nd half where they began to lose balls continuously under pressure from Brentford but scored the 2nd and held on despite Brentford scoring back to make it 2-1. Chelsea held on for a very impressive victory, most of it was controlled and they faced some adversity and held on for the win. Maresca's blues are learning how to handle different situations and learning from it

End of Thread

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Tottenham Hotspurs v Chelsea

Maresca's Half-time Tactical Tweak stabilizes the game for Chelsea.

Tactical Review

Thread

Spurs Lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation with Romero and Van de Ven back (Seemingly) from injuries which was a boost to Spurs. Chelsea also lined up in their familiar 4-2-3-1 formation, back to the same side that faced Villa without the presence of Fofana who Badiashille replaced

I can see Maresca's reasoning going for Caicedo as an inverted FB as I predicted he could go for it before the game, you want physicality and strength in numbers in the middle to control the game.

But we didnt start as expected. Chelsea started the game very jittery, even apart from Cucu's boots deciding to turn to ice skating boots on grass. Loose balls from all over the park from Sanchez to Badiashille, to Palmer and all, loose touches and passes


Spurs to their credit pressed Chelsea aggressively high. Anytime the ball was recycled back, Solanke led the press, pressing more than one player at times, forcing passes to players in uncomfortable positions. Especially passes to Baidashille who immediately became a pressing trigger since he was a left-footer playing RCB, Spurs made him very uncomfortable every time.

Solanke led the press, pressing Colwill and Sanchez when the ball got to him, Son was on Badiashille, Johnson on Cucurella, and Kulusevski started pressing Lavia but Enzo's positioning behind him made him watchful. Sarr pressed Caicedo when he inverted, and Bissouma had a man-marking job on Palmer but pressed past him when Spurs wanted to put even more pressure when Chelsea involved Sanchez as a +1 in the build-up. Meant Chelsea had an extra man.

Spurs's pressure coupled with Chelsea's jittery start and Cucurella's boots giving way twice made Chelsea go 2 goals down within the first 10 mins. Spurs transitioned and utilized the chances effectively.


Meanwhile Chelsea pressed M2M. Press started with Jackson and Palmer on Romero and Van de Ven, Enzo and Lavia on Bissouma and Sarr respectively, The wingers on Spurs's FBs even as they inverted into the midfield and the rest followed and it was quite effective. 

The issue with M2M pressing is that once you lose your runner after ball-watching, then there is space to be exploited and Spurs had those moments, For example, here Caicedo is on Son, Neto is tracking Udogie but Enzo has lost Kulusevski so he gets free 

Same here, Caicedo on Son, Baidashille on Solanke but Son frees himself and Caicedo loses Son. 

After Chelsea regained their composure, Maresca brought Sanchez to the bench to speak to him, and in the next few passages of play, Sanchez started to go longer than he started the game. It could have been a message of trying to find direct balls in behind Spurs's backline and not play out every time but the issue is we lacked a big guy to play it to hold up, Sanchez tried to play the balls to the wingers but their FB was tight on them and there is only one winner. it made us not fall into Spurs's hand of playing short while they applied pressure and we kept giving it to them

CFC still had a good Build-up plan despite the players making individual mistakes. If you draw spurs unto you, there is space to take advantage of in behind and Chelsea still created them. as Sanchez as a +1 and Spurs M2M press meant there was a free man


Enzo dropping into our 3-2 Build-up with Caciedo inverting to turn it into a 3-3-4 showed it could be a problem for them but not now as the momentum and the aggressive nature of their press meant it was tough to get the ball to Enzo when he dropped. Spurs had 18 pressures in the final third in the first 13 minutes of the game to Chelsea's 4.

It ended up being the way Chelsea built up to score Sancho's goal, beating Spurs's press that time and creating a 1v1 for Sancho
https://x.com/MobyChe/status/1865170022336774224


Another way to threaten Spurs was to exploit the space between their midfield lines. Lavia was important in sliding those smart passes between the lines to find Palmer and Enzo, in the first half. we could have done more with them
https://x.com/MobyChe/status/1865170066364416498


Then you can get at Spurs in behind, Which we did as well. We even did it less than we would have done, Jackson not having a good game capitalizing on them played a part as he's the one that can fully take advantage of space in behind Spurs


Chelsea also used transitions to get at Spurs as well, with so many men high, there is space to take advantage of, we weren't effective in the first half though.


In the 2nd half, Maresca made the tweak that changed the game. it changed the game in the form of mitigating Chelsea's weaknesses so Spurs cant exploit them. Firstly we needed to correct Badisahille's passing angles as he had become an easy press trigger for Spurs, Tosin could have been preferred but it would mean Tosin would be facing son a lot 1v1 Gusto was the natural RB choice. Lavia though had to go off because of injury, So Gusto was now the RCB in possession, Badiashille moved to LCB Colwill CCB, Caicedo moved to the pivot, joined by Enzo, Cucurella now became a Left 10 in the LHS, rotating with Sancho wide.

Enzo being deeper gave him the chance to speed up our attacks with switches of play to Neto to stretch Spurs's high backline and provide passes for runs, Enzo was playing his position as well and he's improved in his Gundogan role


The switch meant Sancho had a left footed Underlapping runner in Cucurella who can put in first time balls from his seam runs and also stay wide for Sancho to play inside, rotations. Sancho is very comfrotable coming inside as much as staying wide, he had even more support and he shone more in the 2nd half.

Chelsea's press set the tone for the 2nd half. It was still the same M2M pressing structure of the 1st half, but with more intensity, Spurs had to go long 

Chelsea also began to have Spurs pinned in their own half in the 2nd half, but Spurs couldn't get out. Spurs were forced into a low block and just like the first half against Villa we counter-pressed effectively to be able to pin them and win our pen


The Build up to the 2nd goal was sublime top footwor from Enzo, Sancho, Caicedo and Palmer, some good fortune and a top finish from Enzo, who from the pivot arrived in the box to score. 


Chelsea ended the game through another penalty and killed the game off. The funniest thing is Chelsea were dominant from the start bar the mistakes but Maresca's half time tweak eliminated Chelsea's deficiencies and made Chelsea gain more of a dominant foothold of the game and made the difference. Chelsea showed their powers of recovery and won the game at 3-point lane again. Chelsea go 2 point clear in 2nd and 4 points behind Liverpool who have a game in hand.

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Crystal Palace v Chelsea

Maresca's tweak against Palace's Low block

A Familiar tale of tailing off in the 2nd Half

Tactical Review

Thread

Chelsea lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 with Josh Acheampong making his first PL start for Chelsea at 18 years old at CB, the rest of the team basically picked itself, Meanwhile Palace used their usual 3-4-2-1 formation as well with a solid line up. 

So Chelsea knew that they were going to face a heavy Palace mid-low bloc,k especially with the way they defend in their 5-4-1 shape so Maresca tried something different in the build-up/on-ball shape

He used a conventional 4-3-3/4-5-1 shape for the first time this season. Colwill and Josh were on the same line, Cucurella and Gusto were stationed wide of them, Caicedo as the single pivot, Enzo and Palmer ahead of him in the LHS and RHS respectively, the 2 wingers wide and Jackson central

The shape is a throwback to basic 4-3-3 football in the premier league. 

Why did he do that?

So the aim of this was to have more options between the lines, attract Palace's wingers with our FBs wider and create space for Palmer and Enzo to receive between the lines and directly attack the Palace defence
https://x.com/mobsilab/status/1875969369022648548/video/1

Let's see an illustration of this action

Gusto receives the ball and is immediately pressed by Eze, that's one of the 4 midfielders in the 5-4-1 pressing, Neto's dummy run to run in behind attracts Guehi and Mitchell so all these actions created the space for Palmer to receive, Guehi who's meant to press him arrives late because of that and he plays a ball in behind for Neto

Chelsea didnt just do this in settled possession, but also when they invited Palace to press them and play out using the 8's as out balls, This time Sanchez found Palmer between the lines, and Chelsea did their best work playing out of Palace pressure
https://x.com/mobsilab/status/1875915591829410199/video/1 

The Fullback on the ball side then pushes up in overlapping support as the winger cuts in during an attack. For example, when Neto receives the ball and cuts in, Gusto makes an overlapping support from deep


The rotation of Chelsea wingers with the AMs on the ball side was causing problems as they combined and then couldn't handle the deep overlapping runs of the Fullbacks at the same time. it gave space for overlaps but also the wingers to cross


Those overlapping runs weren't only made by the wingers, Enzo especially usually made in-to-out runs overlapping Sancho to support him and the only thing left was the deliveries into the because Palace found it hard to track those runs

But the other fullback inverts into midfield to be able to prevent easy transitions through the middle of the pitch(Notice Cucurella's positioning in the last picture)

Whilst the team is in the final third, Chelsea tried to overload Palace's back 5 with multiple men between the lines, so the rest defence is 2-2, 2-3 because Palmer or Gusto could still be deeper if they lost the ball. Caicedo and the Fullback that inverts, then Colwill and Josh. 

The wingers weren't just high and wide to receive, they usually also slotted in the pockets to receive, Colwill's direct line breaker to Sancho and his brilliance  gave Chelsea the lead


CFC pressed zonally, Neto had that job, starting from marking Mitchell to then pushing to Guehi. Palmer &amp; Enzo were on Doucoure &amp; Lerma, Jackson &amp; Sancho were on Richards and Munoz. it was effective in the 1st half as it forced Palace to go long.


This transitions into a M2M press when Neto goes in to mark Guehi, Gusto rushes out to press Mitchell and the rest follow suit. Colwill on Mateta and Acheampong on Eze
https://x.com/mobsilab/status/1875969403600490512/video/1 

Palace had to sit back but they had different ways of getting up the pitch, there were long balls to Mateta to try to unsettle our CBs and start attacks and because Colwill was man-marking him tightly, Palace would try to take advantage of the space left.


With how much Palace wanted to support Mateta, they pushed really high trying to get to the knockdowns from Mateta so Chelsea could exploit the space and transition on them.


When Palace lost the ball. they also used long balls in behind from transition opportunities to directly threaten the Chelsea backline and they did get chances especially when Munoz pulled away on the right, he was an outlet throughout


Palace though didnt have many transitions to work with especially in the 1st half because of how quickly Chelsea players looked to recover the ball and had numbers to do so 

When Chelsea dropped deep or stopped being intense in the press, Palace had time to pick their passes and they kept aiming for Munoz with Switches of play, who was an outlet for Palace on the right, whose crosses and cutbacks were causing Chelsea problems 

In the 2nd half, Palace looked to get the ball faster to Mateta to get up the pitch faster to equalize. So they launched about 3 long balls and Mateta began to bring them down and palace up the field 

Palace made Sarr and Eze drop even deeper to receive the ball from their CBs and Chelsea's press began to become disorganised at times, gaps began to appear. The free man here easily allowed Palace to create these kinds of chances, it improved later on


Palace switched to a full high press in the 2nd half, pressing Chelsea from Gks and forcing Chelsea long a lot of the time, either Sanchez or the CBs played the ball long trying to bypass the press but Palace won the ball and quickly transitioned on Chelsea. 

Chelsea had good transition opportunities to at least create a chance but messed them both up. Even ones where Jackson had half chances, he couldn't put them away

Palmer also notably was changed from the RHS to the LHS in position in the 2nd half. 

In order for Palace to remedy Chelsea's Fullbacks having space to play those passes into the 10s, Glasner made Eze and Sarr get very tight to Chelsea's FBs to force them to pass back when they got it, rather than in space like in the first half, So it was more difficult for Chelsea to find Palmer and Enzo free in the Half spaces like they were in the first half. a big reason why we created even less in the 2nd half.

The longer the half wore on, the more our key players became tired, losing balls in key areas they normally dont, Caciedo, Palmer and Sancho all lost the ball in dangerous areas. it was from such mistake that we conceded


The mistakes proved costly as we lost another 2 points on the road. The questions are if Maresca could have used his subs but also the issue of fatigue of his main players and if there are adequate replacements for them, Caicedo had none, and whether Maresca trusts some like Felix and Nkunku to come on in place of Palmer. The issues are solvable once Lavia and even Reece come back, Acheampong has also filled a gap that Fofana left and hopefully, he can continue that into the next game. Jackson missed half chances, not big ones but ones that a striker should be burying at least one, he needs to keep going and improving

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Chelsea v Fulham

Lack of Control in the 2nd Half sparks late Fulham comeback Show

Tactical Review

Thread

Chelsea lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with little change from the Everton game, Cucurella came back into the side with Gusto returning to RB, the rest were the same, whilst Fulham lined up in a back 3 for one of the few times this season with Bassey back in the side, Robinson and Castagne as wingbacks.

The change from Fulham to a back 5 off ball and back 3 on the ball, surprised Chelsea a bit,(Fulham usually play in a back 4) as Chelsea struggled with their press early on. Anderson acted like a DM in the build-up, Diop and Bassey spread out with Castagne and Robinson high and wide, Lukic was the base of a 3 man midfield of Iwobi in the LHS and Pereira in the RHS, so Adnersen and Lukic formed a pivot in the build-up

Chelsea had to go M2M before long, Cucurela on Castagne, Sancho on Diop, Cacideo pushed up to Periera, Palmewr on Lukic, Jackson on Anderson and on the Gk when trying to press them back, Enzo on Bassey Gusto on Iwobi, Colwill on Adama and Tosin on Jiminez 

The Press had lapses, Fulham also wanted to play on the Chelsea M2M marking by doing lots of rotations to confuse the markers, remember we struggled with this against Southampton too. For example notice Iwobi's positioning here from the left wing, then how he rotates with Periera into the LHS, then drops deep into the pivot, and manages to receive the ball free. so Chelsea struggled at times with it,

in this light, For Bassey's chance where he went on a solo run and almost scored, Iwobi dropped deep and Enzo losing his marker almost scored from it. 

Fulham's biggest attacking threat is the bombing runs of Robinson on the Left and now that he had been freed up by being a wing-back instead of a LB, he could make those runs every time now, Neto would have tracked it before if Fulham played a back 4 but now Neto had to be aware of him all game, so much that he was playing as deep as Gusto since Gusto was on Iwobi

Fulham's plan was to use Iwobi to drag out Gusto and then play in the runs of Robinson as the 3rd man run. Neto stayed tight to him all game, wel except for the equalizer. we will get to that and what happened there 

Chelsea's plan in Possession was to attack Fulham with a 3-1-6(Diamond midfield), Cucurella inverting from left back into the LHS, Enzo at the right, Caicedo at the base, Palmer at the tip, because of Fulahm's back 5. 

It did work to open Fulham's 5-4-1 shape up, you could see it on occasions as we didnt sustain pressure enough to make it count, It worked when either one of our players beat his marker, drawing another marker towards them which freed Palmer in the process 

When Fulham were in their 5-4-1 shape, they didnt really necessarily man mark him so he had just that little pocket of space where he was free for seconds, before being marked by the Fulham CBs who would step out to mark him if not he was free and would have to be marked by the Fulham midfielder

It didnt only free Palmer, whenever Fulham tried to press Chelsea from their mid-block shape, and didnt get it right, Chelsea could use any of the 3 men in the half spaces to progress the ball into the final third. In this case Cucurella was free and Tosin found him but look at how free Palmer and Enzo were too

Thats why Traore and Iwobi had to be careful of leaving Cucurella and Enzo free in between the lines. whilst Periera and Lukic had to be aware of Palmer 

If Fulham wanted to force us back, so we didnt have enough time and space to pick out Palmer free, the Fulham CBs would jump out to Enzo or Cucurella to compress the space and force the back pass, Gusto was forced to do that a lot, that triggered the M2M Fulham press once again. Iwobi won the ball here

It also worked for Palmer's goal, let's analyze what happened. Gusto played a huge part tactically as his ball-carrying from RCB dragged Iwobi deep, attracting Bassey too. Enzo trying to run in behind attracted the attention of 2 players. Neto pinned Robinson. So when the ball came back, Gusto and Neto still remained wide, Caciedo's presence took Jiminez's attention, so Palmer was free in between the 2 CBs, received the ball with just enough time to wriggled free and produced some Eden Hazard-esque magic to score

The same thing happened again where we almost scored from too which left Palmer free, Gusto made his run forward too, took Iwobis attention, Palmer found a pocket of space and weaved his magic again 

Fulham responded with a M2M press of their own when we built up which made us go long a lot of the time to try to go over the press to Jackson, but Jackson isn't strong in the air holding up play like that and he was competing with 3 CBs so we lost the ball a lot when we did that.

Sanchez also usually looked for a switch to Sancho or Neto, which was hardly on and wasn't accurate yesterday. 

As part of Fulham's attacking strategy, When Fulham won the ball, they focused on transitioning quickly with fast players like Adama ball carrying to get up the pitch. it was a theme of the 2nd half especially when we failed to control the game and showed in the Fulham winner 

Sometimes we gave the ball quite cheaply for those transitions 

Whenever Fulham tried to attack quickly, Chelsea tried to take advantage and attack quickly as well. either by that or winning the ball high and attacking quickly which to be honest we didnt see much of as Fulham had enough bodies back most of the time, instead we lost the ball and that was the beginning of the basket ball periods of the game

Another way Chelsea tried to bypass Fulahm's press too was balls into the channel for Jackson, happened a lot also in the 2nd half, especially from Colwill and It was a regular way of us getting forward. we created some good chances from it 

Robinson's runs were really causing Chelsea problems in the 2nd half, Neto seemed to be the one tracking it better, when Gusto or anyone else by circumstance had to track it, they did so with less intensity. Here Gusto didnt track it well and a chance 

Like the goal too. Robinson gets away from Gusto who is now marking Iwobi after Iwobi got away from Neto, Enzo didnt track on time and we concede with Colwill not keeping the box highline accurately. 

Fulham then began to push us back even more and we began to give too much space at the edge of our box for shots. the rotations were causing problems. Notice Iwobi's starting positions and how he frees himself from his marker, Gusto. 

Chelsea couldnt really build up a proper 3-5 minut spell of pressure like we have been doing in the past few weeks, well it wa the same against Everton. Because we rushed play, almost every goal kick became long balls, which we didnt win without any presence upfront. we need to find build up solutions for this or get a Striker that can hold the ball up to give us another option. Our Press began to wane and it was easy to bypass us into the final third

Then there were times that we lost the ball unprovoked in moments where if we kept it we dearly momentum. it was even worse in the final 10 minutes when it became a basketball match and we paid dealry for it 

The only time we felt in control of the game was the first 10-15 mins of the 2nd half. where we were more careful with the ball and recycled it well and won the ball immediately we lost it


The lack of control was apparent in the goal. Sanchez understandably wants to launch it for a chance to score but it was not hit in the right area and immediately pushes us to the back foot, players fail to recover quickly. there wasnt any intensity on the ball, the ball was far enough for us to win it but we didnt and we concede.

The whole game was a wormhole of mistakes from both the players and the manager, who failed to try to control his team and didnt bring in enough reinforcements to help the team especially when it became clear that they were getting tired. He also failed to recognize the space Fulham started to get on their right side and to stop it. Truly an off day for the Manager its important how to know how to manage these types off the ball and dig out the points when needed. Lots of work to do. unto the next

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What do you think the issue was against Fulham and how can we fix it?

Chelsea v Bournemouth

A Tale of 2 Contrasting Halves, Sounds Familiar, doesn't it🤔

Why Chelsea drew to Bournemouth

Tactical Review

Thread

Chelsea lined up with their usual 4-2-3-1 shape with Lavia and Noni back in the lineup whilst Bournemouth(BOU) are missing Evanilson and Unal through injury so, Semenyo started at ST yesterday with a midfield 3 of Adams, Christie and Cook 

Chelsea's shape on the ball in settled play was a Cucurella, Colwill and Acheampong back 3, Lavia and Caicedo inverting from RB then Enzo in a box-to-box role making it a 3-3-4, Noni, Palmer, Sancho, and Jackson front 4, 

So BOU built up in a 2-4 shape, their 2 CBs spread very wide, almost like he's the centre of a back 3 with his CBs and the pivot, Adams and Cook are in front of them, whilst the Fullbacks are very high and wide,, while at times the BOU FBs try to roam with their positioning a bit to free themselves from marking. It was because of BOU's overload against Chelsea's press that they could bypass it into midfield which Chelsea wanted and I'll explain

So Chelsea's pressing set-up was Jackson and Palmer on the 2 BOU Cbs, Sancho and Noni on the 2 FBs when the ball was with the Gk, and when the ball went to the left CB Huljsen, Sancho came inside to cover cook as you see here, whilst Enzo covers Adams, as Chelsea try to box them into one side.

it was Zonal as Palmer &amp; Jackson had to determine who to mark, for Palmer, he either marked Huljsen and cover-shadowed Adams, or Adams, so he had to read the pass well to whoever it was going to, Jackson also took turns to press Zarbanyi or the Gk.


Bournemouth on the other hand, pressed Chelsea virtually M2M and backed themselves to pull it off as i said before the game, with the CBs even coming out to press our 8 like Zarbanyi on Enzo in this pic 

But they played into Chelsea's hand as Chelsea had a set-up when the ball got back to Sanchez of a 4(including Sanchez)-3-4/4-2-5,  meaning they used Sanchez as an extra man to play out of their press. Which they utilised to open BOU up and create chances
https://x.com/mobsilab/status/1879514070560424144/video/1 

Another way Chelsea opened BOU up was when Chelsea drew BOU unto themselves, fell to their midblock shape, mostly a 5-4-1 with Noni acting as a RB off the ball, at times a 4-4-2 depending on if Palmer joined Jackson to press the CBs, Chelsea set up that way to win the ball and transition on BOU. Chelsea also needed the space to transition as you can get loads of space when you do that as we've seen Liverpool do against them to great success. The aggressiveness of our back 4 with BOU's attackers helped with this

It was effective and a big source of chance creation as it left BOU, 1v1 against our players and you back out better quality players to beat theirs and they did so a lot of the time in the 1st half. Jackson was incredible at beating 2-3 players at a time


It was so effective that BOU couldn't touch Chelsea's box for half of the first half. Up until the 36th min 

In the 2nd Half, just 2 minutes in Lavia slipped making a mistake, and Caicedo also made his mistake to concede a penalty out of nowhere which BOU scored.


James came on and he replaced Caicedo at RB inverting into midfield. Caicedo was the DM. 

The difference was that we stopped winning our individual battles like we were doing in the first half and BOU started gaining momentum 


The manner we conceded the 2nd goal was very disappointing, we were too open, Christie was too free and free to pick out Semenyo who shouldn't have been left 1v1 with Josh 


We then started to rush a lot of our play, trying to force our play and become very scrappy which suits BOU more than us. So we could never really get back into the game, pin the back and try to create chances with waves of pressure


It's not only in this game ive noticed it, Chelsea dont seem to know how to settle down and pin teams back when we need to get a goal when were are drawing or behind. we tend to rush things, and force things, and it's part of the development this young squad has to go through. Thank God for Reece's freekick which salvaged the points for us. Maresca set us up to win, we should have scored more in the first half, which was one of our best first halves of the season but in our winning and unbeaten run earlier in the season we would have scored 2, but normal that in a part of the season, you would go through a dry spell in front of goal, and our defending and youthfulness in handling games couldn't help hold the fort till we get ourselves back, it happens.

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What do you think went wrong in the 2nd Half?

Chelsea v Everton

How Everton kept the League's Top scorers at bay

Tactical Review

Thread

Chelsea lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 with 2 changes from last week's game  against Brentford, Disasi comes in for Cucurella but in the line up Gusto plays as a LB while Disasi as a RB. Everton were without McNeil whilst playing thier 4-3-3 formation 

Chelsea's used a 3-2 shape today in settled Build-up with Disasi inverting into the 3rd CB whilst Gusto pushed up into the LHS while Sancho was wide. Enzo and Caicedo formed the pivot . 

Everton to counter Chelsea's Build-up formed a very centrally-oriented 4-5-1 mid-block shape in which the wingers are basically playing as midfielders, while 5 midfielders try to block the central spaces because they know Chelsea are good at finding spaces in the pockets to progress the ball. Mangala and Doucoure marked both Enzo and Caicedo, sticking to them like glue while Gueye was mostly the one tracking Palmer

This midblock wasn't just dropping deep without a fight, they were actively pressing Chelsea whilst in the midblock, preventing them from entering their half easily. Doucuoure and Mangala were actively trying to force Enzo and Caicedo backwards, when the Cbs got the ball with back passes, the wingers were put under pressure when they received back to goal. They were put under pressure so any wrong pass was going to be punished but Chelsea did well largely to be neat on the ball from there

Jackson dropped deep from ST to help Chelsea find ways to progress the ball which would drag an Everton CB and trigger a Palmer 3rd man run to receive the pass behind Gueye to exploit the space the CB left. It was certainly a Solution 

But Everton picked up on that and Tarkowski stopped following Jackson so closely into midfield because it opened up space. But this time becuase he left it for the Everton midfielders to handle, it meant there was more space in behind Everton's midfield in front of the CBs if Jackson held it up.

Everton started to just outnumber Jackson later on there so his influence between the lines began to wane, as it was tracked better by their midfielders 

Another way we tried to get past the Everton mid-block was through balls in behind them. with Everton quite high trying to stop us from progressing the ball, there was space in-behind them and we often set Jackson away with them
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1871044698116333723/video/1 

With the Central orientation of Everton, the space would naturally be outwide but this is where their wingers come into play, Ndiaye and Harrison acted as Fullbacks a lot when Neto or Sancho had the ball in 1v1 situations, The 4-5-1 Everton midblock stretched to when they were in a low block, so they were doubled on and even trippled up on

But what I didnt like from Chelsea this game was that the wingers lacked adequate support with movement from the 8's, Palmer was mostly stationed behind Jackson and hardly ran the half-space channels, Gusto tried but was tracked and didnt support Sacnho a lot 

But the Everton Fullbacks Young and Mykolenko were very tight to Sancho and Neto, helped by their Wingers, even though the switch to them was on so it was hard for them, but we needed them to try to get past their man more 

It happened a lot more in the 2nd half, Sancho tried to be more direct but was often doubled and tripled up on, got past Young a bit more but look at Harrison there showing the dedication to stopping the wingers from doing anything productive 

When Chelsea tried to put in crosses, Everton we're strong at defending them so it didn't work, the balls were repelled back from whence they came and we didn't have enough presence in the box like v Brentford for obvious transition threat reasons Eve have especially at home. 

But Chelsea had good corners, especially in the first half and Jackson missed his chance which he didn't see till the last minute so it's hard to press him for it from a setpiece opportunity. Setpieces from Enzo's deliveries generally were threatening. 

Everton's way of getting up the pitch since they basically refused to play out, was direct balls to Calvert-Lewin(DCL) but this was what Maresca planned for very well, playing Tosin, Disasi and Colwill at CB. Tosin who was the one mostly marking DCL won 4 of his 7 aerial duels as Chelsea managed to isolate him all game. few Everton teammates were close to him as they were focused on stopping Chelsea from the very beginning

It only worked a few times when DCL managed to win the ball and bring his teammates into the game but Samchez bailed us out there, the box offside trap almost cost us dearly there 

Chelsea matched up with the physicality of Everton, apart from the CBs winning their duels, Caicedo and Enzo won their duels, Enzo won 8/11 duels, Caicedo won 7/8 of his and those almost single-handedly created big chances on their own generating transition moments but they were few and far between

Everton also had their transition ball-carrying threat of Ndiaye, Doucoure especially when they managed to get away from our Counter press which wasn't much, to be honest, but, Sanchez and Tosin had to save us those 2-3 times that happened.
https://x.com/Mobchevid/status/1871050464378134995/video/1 

Maresca changed something in the 2nd half around the 61stmin with Gusto moving into the pivot and Enzo moving into the LHS instead, and it did change something, Chelsea looked a bit more threatening in moments as Enzo started to get the ball to Palmer centrally a lot more and is a far bigger goal threat than Gusto

Some Thoughts:

Maresca didnt make changes until the 75min, which was too late in my opinion as Everton nullified all our threats till then and we didnt look like scoring in the 60+ min he needed to change something, probably bring in Guiu who is a box striker instead of Nkunku that wouldn't challenge them much in the air, Neto would have been better served going to the left to challenge Young with direct pace a lot more. 

I feel Maresca should have gone with his Diamond midfield formation but I understand that the transition threat of Everton against just Caicedo would have been not fair on him plus Cucurella isn't available as he helps massively with stopping those attacks. i didn't feel like we took enough risk trying to score.

But that's just tactical. Chelsea ended up creating one of their lowest XG's of the season with 1.17 created according to Sofascore. They created a bit in the first half with those Jackson chances but they weren't as clear-cut because of the situations fo them both but if we score one, we win. but these are one of those days, massive credit to Everton who set up to deny us and they did, showing they are one of the best defences in the league, denying both us and Arsenal in back-to-back weeks. But to put a positive light on it. we didn't lose at a ground we don't seem to get a lot of joy from and Chelsea will be happy to see the back of that stadium

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Southampton v Chelsea

Chelsea kill Southampton's M2M Press on Transitions 

Tactical Review

Thread

Southampton lined up in their usual 5-4-1 formation with 3 key players out in Dibling, Downes and Harwood-Bellis missing through suspension, While Chelsea lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 with Maresca making 7 changes to the side that beat Villa on Sunday. 

Chelsea's shape on the ball(Settled Build) was also totally different from what we have seen under Maresca. We built up in a 2-4 shape(excluding the GK), Disasi and Tosin spread themselves on either side of the GK. Gusto inverted into the pivot with Caicedo and Enzo and Felix dropped either side of Caicedo and Gusto as options. In this scenario, Cucu and Felix stayed wide. it was fluid as well with the way Enzo, Palmer and Felix dropped to provide themselves as passing options into midfield.

Chelsea's shape from GKs was the usual 4-2 Build-up with Enzo and Caicedo as pivots, Disasi and Tosin, Cucurella and Gusto wide 

Meanwhile, Soton looked to press Chelsea really high to win the ball back. Chelsea's more limited options in the build-up meant Chelsea's build-up wasn't so smooth as Soton were aggressive in their press.


The reason Chelsea did that was solely to overload Soton's backline, Soton used a 5 man defence, so he wanted as much as 6 attacking the last line at times. At least 5 and Maresca wanted to do it against an unsettled Soton defence(In transition) 

As Soton had 22 errors leading to a shot before the night, Chelsea obviously aimed to press them into mistakes but struggled early on, Soton built up in a 3-3-4, Bree and Manning joined the 2nd line(midfield) and left Wood, Stephens and KWP as the 3 CBs in possession. Fernandez as the Single pivot.

It was very fluid though as KWP could invert into midfield at times when the GK steps in between the 2 CBs, Aribo, dropping deep to provide an option as well. It could then also look like a 2-3 with Walker pushing up not just beside Fernandes(Soton) 

Chelsea opted for a compact centrally oriented press that transitioned to a M2M press. Southampton likes to play through traffic as well and use central areas to free up the wide areas to be freer to receive passes. It means Passes to their ST dropping deep as well. Chelsea wanted to stop that.

Chelsea pressed with Nkunku on Wood, Felix on Bree, Noni had the Zonal role of covering both Stephens and KWP, similar to Neto v Villa. Palmer was on Fernandes(Soton). When Noni could go ahead and press Stephens, Enzo pressed KWP, and Gusto pressed Manning who usually started high, then it transitioned into a man-to-man press

But CFC struggled with Soton's rotations. That was a good plan, the best way to deal with a M2M press is to rotate positions, how diligent are the players following their man even though they rotate?  CFC players struggled to follow their man


Chelsea also struggled with the ball carrying of the Soton player out of their build-up, KWP left Enzo in his wake a lot through carrying. Chelsea players also kept jumping into and missing tackles. Led to Soton's goal


After that goal, Chelsea tried to start with a M2M press much earlier, Palmer jumped from pressing Fernandes to the CBs, and Caicedo then jumped to Fernandes. it still wasn't easy for the Chelsea players to nail who to pick up as the Soton rotation was causing problems. Soton players were popping out everywhere and Chelsea's players didnt follow their man

But Chelsea just needed one good pressing moment and a mistake from Soton and it came from Che being M2M, Noni pinches the ball and lays it off the Nkunku. Lunley read the situation terribly, A Soton mistake can change your life.


Chelsea's attacking plan for Soton was simply to transition quickly, Soton are very bad at defending transition moments, which was a big reason why Maresca left few players in the build-up and focused on overloading Soton's midfield/final third 

Chelsea aimed to use the build-up to do that. Soton's M2M pressing made it easier as they fell for the traps, which created transition moments, like our goals


or win the ball via pressing or deep in our half and transition. We created loads of opportunities by reason of this, Win the ball and transition. This was now made by Chelsea's better M2M press sending Lunley long 


At 3-1 and a Stephens Red Card, the game was done and dusted. It became a matter of how many goals Chelsea could score. In the 2nd Half, Chelsea switched to their usual 3-2 build-up, Disasi this time lined up at LCB, Caicedo and Enzo pivot, Gusto inverting into CB 

Soton didnt stop pressing and trying to get forward but it left them open all the time as Chelsea kept getting chance after chance, especially with how narrow Soton were, wide areas were free and it's fair to say we should have scored much more. 
https://x.com/mobsilab/status/1864639582899245170/video

Soton to their credit didnt stop trying to play out and the emphasis on our press not being good throughout the night was still on show when Soton were down to 10 men. They managed to break the press a few times


We ended up killing the game and making the scoreline show the gap, even if it could have been more


Chelsea won 5-1 and were full value for it, We struggled to press Soton but kept at it and they made a mistake, Maresca's plan to overload Soton's backline with more attacking players paid off fully, even with 11 men, Chelsea created chances getting behind their midfield and their M2M press and attacking them with artificial transitions and actual transitions and create 10 big chances, missed 7. slightly disappointing not to have even more goals but we are still the top scorers in the league. This with 7 changes. Chelsea continue to impress and are now 7 points behind Liverpool despite not being in the title race. Onto to Spurs.

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Where do you see Chelsea finishing on the table?