Oluwaseun 🇳🇬
@MobyChe
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/1...
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/1...
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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