Oluwaseun 🇳🇬
@MobyChe
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
This is how it was in motion
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/...
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.
End of Thread Likes, Reposts, and Comments are duly appreciated as always Thank you Where do you see Chelsea finishing on the table?