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@MobyChe
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/...
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/...
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 & Enzo were on Doucoure & Lerma, Jackson & 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/...
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
End of Thread Likes, Reposts and Comments are duly appreciated Thank you