Chelsea 2-1 Man City - a tactical analysis thread:

The Approaches

The two managers went with interesting selections

Lampard set up his side in a 4-3-3 with Kanté starting his second consecutive game as the deepest midfielder - the first time he has done this since the 2017/18 season when Conte had replaced Matic with Bakayoko.

- Lampard didn't partner Kante with any other defensive-minded midfielders, with Kovacic, Jorginho & Gilmour all on the bench - perhaps owing to the Frenchmen's incredible work rate. Instead, he opted for was flanked by Barkley & Mount who played as attacking 8s

•Pep on the other hand mitigated the loss of Aguero to injury with a 4-3-3 system with Bernardo & KDB rotating as false 9s (with the other dropping into midfield)

First Half

• In contrast to the Arsenal game where Mendy & Walker took turns to be the inverted full-back, Mendy was given full licence to fly forwards with Walker sitting deep. You can see this in Mendy's more advanced & wider average position vs Chelsea compared to Arsenal

•However,the lack of a natural striker making intelligent runs into the box made this strategy futile- compare Sterling's movement here vs Gabriel Jesus' goal vs Real
-Sterling hasn't even started his run when a cross is about to come in whilst Jesus ghosts behind Ramos to score

- again Mendy delivered a quality cross but no City attacker made the run across the 6-yard box...

•We saw a similar weakness in Pep's false 9 system in the first half vs Real Madrid
-compact Modric-Casemiro-Valverde midfield stifled City's build-up thru the middle - City created 1 big chance
-in the 2nd half when Pep brought Jesus into the middle - City created 4 big chances

• The other weakness with the system was KDB positioned in a more advanced role often rotating with Bernardo as the false 9, filling the space he left when moving wide or deep- meant KDB couldn't have impact on City's build-up that we mentioned vs Arsenal https://twitter.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1273649102878838785?s=20

•Surprisingly Lampard sat off Man City's CBs in a mid-press
-Giroud didn't press until Laporte/Fernandinho carried the ball forwards. Mainly blocked passes into City's DM - suited Giroud's lack of pace to press
- with Pulisic/Willian tracking Walker & Mendy rather than pressing

- it also helped to make Chelsea more compact centrally with the 8s (Barkley & Mount) not having to push up behind a high press and being able to concentrate on tracking Man City's two 8s (KDB & Rodri/Gundogan)

- this left Kanté as the free man to track either:
a) one of the 8s running beyond Barkley/Mount
b) the false 9 dropping into deeper pockets
c) pushing up to City's DM (Gundogan/Rodri) when Giroud could not block the passing lane into them

•So why else did Lampard select Giroud?
- as well as his goal vs Villa, Giroud proved to be a useful counter-attacking mechanism in the first half

-counter-attacks often associated with players running in-behind being supplied with long balls
-but Lampard selected a Barkley-Kanté-Mount midfield (all more adept at short to medium range passing). The trio made 6 long passes in the game compared to Gundogan-Rodri-KDB making 20

- therefore Lampard needed someone to link the midfield to the attack with this short passing to help initiate counter-attacks and Giroud dropping into deeper central areas did exactly that

•Lampard had also learnt from the last game vs a possession-oriented side (Bayern who had 64% possession) - Chelsea had many counters but didn't have speed out wide to exploit them with Mount & Barkley flanking Giroud in wide roles rather than the midfield roles they had vs City

- Pulisic & Willian was a complete flip reversal in selection on the wings, with both players possessing the pace to get in-behind City several times - whilst Pulisic's pace also proving vital in capitalising on Mendy's error for the goal

Lesson learnt for Lampard

- Pulisic & Willian complemented each other in areas which they occupied too. Pulisic attacked open spaces further up the pitch & Willian formed an alternative link to countering quickly by picking up the ball in deeper areas and spinning away from opponents on the half-turn

- Ratio of touches in final third:first two thirds:
- Pulisic - 10:15
- Wilian - 7:23

- Encouragingly Hakim Ziyech is also pretty swift on the half-turn in his own half to help maintain this balance with Pulisic next season

2nd half

• Man City's high press at the start of the second half suffocated Chelsea for first 15-20 mins - it was much more coordinated & like the scissor press we talked about in the Arsenal game https://twitter.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1273649107589046272?s=20

- City's 1st half press vs Chelsea was uncoordinated with their attackers often in 'no-mans land'

- 2nd half press
-Jesus implements scissor press better than Bernardo - approaches Christensen but still blocks direct pass to Kanté
-Christensen has to play a pass which forces Kanté to turn backwards
-invites City's press further & Chelsea cede possession

•The other City change was Pep ditching the ploy of KDB rotating with Bernardo as a false 9
-KDB was in his more natural deeper central areas so he was able to initiate much quicker passing moves, including
1.The move leading to his FK
2.The move leading to Sterling hitting post

• However, Lampard recognised Chelsea were struggling and responded quickly by bringing on Tammy Abraham
1. Allowed Chelsea to escape City's press by supplying Abraham's runs in-behind with long balls
2. Giroud work rate clearly dropping & he wasn't stopping the City CBs advance

Summary
•Lampard's compact mid-press stifled City initially
•Bernardo false 9 wasn't fruitful in terms of pressing and affecting KDB's role
•Jesus on & KDB back into normal 8 position improved City's press & build-up
•Abraham brought on by Lampard at exactly the right time

Retweets of the original post in the thread much appreciated if you enjoyed reading it. And any feedback always welcome. Thanks