Tactical Analysis: Chelsea vs Brentford Chelsea ended their winless run against Brentford with a dominant performance. Maresca's brave tactical plan against one of the best transitional sides explained. Why the poor last 20 minutes? A lot more to discuss.... A Mega Thread!
- In Possession - The plan was a diamond midfield(3-1-6) with Palmer as the central 10, Enzo RCM, Cucu LCM and Caicedo isolated in the middle of the pitch. The biggest reason for this tactic is to overload BREs line of 5 with our 6. Subsequently if BRE looked to prevent this, one of the midfielders needs to join the backline which pushes their forward line deeper and allows CHE pin them deep( will talk about this more in depth later). However, this is still a very brave set-up against Mbuemo/Wissa. These 2 are some of the deadliest transitional attackers you can find in the league and we saw why later on.
Chelsea looked to use the LCB and RCB for deep half space crossers. With the line of 6 ready to attack the box, the DFs will send in crosses with the aim of Chelsea overloading BRE's 5 at the back(overall BRE dealt with it well). LCMs/RCMs = Cutbacks
Funnily enough, the 1 goal we scored from a cross we don't actually place emphasis on structure > cross. This cross was spontaneous as Noni simply took it on himself once he identifies the space. Cucu is a short player meaning its almost useless for him to be in a standing position for a header in the box. He does well to let Jackson take the attention, wait and then attack the space once the cross comes in. This allows him generate the force needed on the header. Very smart play from him. Great goal.
It does not matter if a teams whole plan is to sit in a low block.There will be transitions. When they have the ball, during set-pieces and throw-ins are all chances to create transitions against deep block teams and we did it well. Leads to Jacksons goal
- Build Up - BRE did not press CHE often from GKs, but the few times they did Chelsea managed to play through or were forced long with Sanchez looking to find Jackson 1v1. The rotations in the clip below was nice: Jackson wide > Noni central
- Resets / Counter - Pressing - It was impressive to see CHE constantly pass the ball around BREs block, slowly probing and remaining patient. Naturally this allowed players get into their zones which pinned BRE back and allowed the players counter press
The patience to get into the right positions, then attack, then press immediately once the ball is lost is why Chelsea played some of their best Football for about 70 minutes this season. Chelsea showed what it truly meant to DOMINATE an opponent. This was not just a matter of playing HOW you want to play, but fully controlling HOW the other team plays. As you can see by the graph below, BRE had nothing until the 70+ mark in which CHE got fatigued. @markstatsbot
Due to how well we pinned BRE, you often see only 2/3 players against our 4/5/6 when they managed to fashion some form of transition. This is an advantage that comes with sustaining pressure, as most of the opposition players find themselves too deep to support transitions.
- What to improve ? - I think Marescas management could have been better around the 70th minute. I don't blame him for not subbing in more players because the bench was weak, but CHE were still going man2man until the 2nd half ended. Chelsea also persisted with the 3-1-6 throughout the 2nd half. BRE starting becoming more aggressive in their press which forced more mistakes in this set up. By switching to a pivot or 3 man midfield, we could have controlled the game better with the ball(theoretically benefits us more as well since they run much more during the game).
This happened rarely, but we had moments in which we passed to Caicedo in very dangerous positions. BRE's whole plan is to set central traps, win the ball and counter. In this instance(image), Gusto gives Caicedo the ball and he loses it. We win it back, but could be a different story in another play. Players need to recognize these traps in real time.
{ Out of Possession } The plan was to go man2man. Jackson arching his run to block off one CB, Sancho/Noni often positioned halfway to be able to press the FB and support defensively + Palmer/Enzo covering the pivots. Chelsea were excellent.
https://twitter.com/CFCNewsJJ/... Chelsea consistently forced BRE into making mistakes or won it back in their half. CHE also forced BRE long several times, but Tosin/Colwill consistently managed to win their aerial duels. Our pressing and defenders helped us consistently win the ball back: a major reason we could control them. We gave them nothing when they had the ball.
To show you the danger that comes with the DFs not winning their duels, this is the 1st successful long ball won by a BRE player and it directly leads to their biggest chance.
Given Cucus role of marking Mbuemo, Sancho was particularly excellent defensively. He consistently tracked any runner looking to take advantage of the space vacated by Cucu. This level of work-rate is what plugs "holes" in systems. Top work from him.
- What to improve? - I noticed we've been bad on 2nd phases of set-pieces alot, and I think I figured out why. In the 1st image, Jackson/Palmer are at the far side, but once they "think" the ball is cleared they rush forward(in case of transitions) which leaves a massive hole. Sanchez is forced into a spectacular save or its 1:1. Palmer/Jackson are forwards so its normal if they are forward thinking, but this needs to be coached out of our forwards. Need to consistently defend as one in these scenarios until there is no danger.
- The goal - The goal we conceded should never be happening/atleast not how it did. Colwill sees Mbuemo running into space and seems to be caught between 2 minds: run-forward/intercept. In such a situation you never look to intercept with so much space behind you. He should have run forward to be able to see Mbuemo. He could then delay while Tosin caught up, or intercept the pass. Tosin is also really poor with that challenge. Overall, very poor defensive mistakes from those 2.
- Excellent Sanchez - Its not an exaggeration to say Sanchez won us the points in this game. The saves, the high claims, sweeping actions, knowing when to go long/short all helped us massively in this game. We would all be hoping he can be consistent!
Overall, it was a well deserved win with many good performances all-around. As I alluded to in this post, BRE is always a tough game because they are good, but we matched them physically and dominated tactically/technically. We move unto the next game. https://x.com/NewsJeffJ1/statu...