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Chelsea 4-1-4-1(4-2-3-1) Thread.
Depending on who we up against; Kai could shift inside centrally (behind striker) while Mount(Ngolo) drops alongside Rice to make it 4-2-3-1. Extreme version has all the starboys, CHO LW, Pulisic inside, Let's Go.
Depending on who we up against; Kai could shift inside centrally (behind striker) while Mount(Ngolo) drops alongside Rice to make it 4-2-3-1. Extreme version has all the starboys, CHO LW, Pulisic inside, Let's Go.
This is a copy&paste setup from the one we setup vs Everton (4-0) just Thiago for Rüdiger, Rice for Gilmour, Kai-Barkley, Pulisic-Pedro, Ziyech-Willian, Giroud-Werner.
Normally Chelsea lineup in a flat-ish 433, striker stretching opponent backline deeper, but in tough games where Chelsea have shown they can compete with the absolute best, striker withdraws & Chelsea are compact vertically 4141. (Sarri 2-0 City, Lampard 2-2 Liverpool Supercup)
Issue with the flat 433 is striker(Giroud) is too a head of Jorginho & the #8s too wide to provide any form of protection for Jorginho but 4-2-3-1 Jorgi+Kova(Mount) helped fix staggering issues by placing Mount infront of Jorginho, so instead of 3 lines of defense, it becomes 4.
Of course Chelsea still got beat in 4-2-3-1 because of uncoordinated press & lack of a transitional structure. Lampard's vertical play dictates half the team runs forward as soon as CM is on the ball so Jorgi has to ping a perfect ball or opponent wins the ball = counterattack
Here's where shit gets weird, immediately Jorgi recognizes need for immediate counterpress but the 3/4 guys behind him have no clue what's happening they're basically playing in a different reality so when Jorgi pushes up to press, he's left tons of space behind him & no cover.
Perfectly summed. https://twitter.com/nomifooty/status/1157754067516628993?s=19
Now the fan base fuming why Jorgi is all over the place, but he's literally executing textbook transitional play his disadvantage is his teammates haven't been drilled in recognizing counterpress triggers. Now he know he's fucked, kick the man on the ball(get booked) or get beat.
Lampard tried to fix the highline but the team still not on the same wavelength. Here's a good example; Jorgi recognizes a classic press trigger, Fabinho is still trying to settle on the ball down, Chelsea must press aggressively, Jorgi starts pressing but everyone else watching.
In this instance Kova is pressing a man that Jorginho is already made a move to press, wavelength. I also get that Mane & Salah are positionally placed brilliantly so CBs feel uncomfortable to move but this is a press trigger. Also perfect example of DM driving forward(Rice?).
If Lampard made it clear he's not interested in pressing these situations probably wouldn't happen very often, but Frank's understanding of press is fundamentally different to Jorginho's understanding.
Compact 4-1-4-1 places Giroud closer to Jorginho & backline closer in behind, similar almost to Liverpool's 433 although they aren't as compact but are instead counterpressing Nazis & they literally play a defensive forward making it difficult to go through them centrally.
City & Leicester play 4-1-4-1 with floating 8/10s; Maddison+Tielemans. Looks risky especially because everyone's got this idea in their minds that Maddison is poor defensively or that Silva can't defend but that's because y'all focusing on the individual & not the structure.
Fundamental idea behind good defense starts with placement of players in tactical positions; Silva+KDB immediately above Dinho means City have men around the ball to support a well coordinated gegenpress & if that don't work fallback into a flat shape or initiate tactical fouling
The press has to be aggressive, without it & Fernandinho has enormous grounds to cover horizontally & without a high line more space to cover vertically. Chelsea are severely under coached in the gegenpressing, we rely heavily on individuals, a M̶o̶u̶n̶t̶-Man-oriented press.
"But Rice is not a DM, I've seen the clip, he likes to bomb forward" lol. For any team to be unpredictable & efficient any player on the ball has to pay attention incase space in the opponent opens up, Matic was top-3 dribbler at Chelsea, Fabinho run through Arsenal yesterday.
It's all about awareness, Rice only drives forward when he knows his team have numbers behind & there's an opportunity to drive forward, when City are high up & trying to break teams down you don't see Fernandinho drifting trying to show for the ball in wide overloads.
If he's getting involved it's in support as an outlet centrally incase City need to switch/restart. Kante on the other hand IS THE OVERLOAD. So am not worried about Rice it's the preparation in transition that we need then it don't matter much whether Puli/Mount is roaming 10.
Having men around the ball centrally isn't just key for transitions it's also key for Havertz.(already talked about this in pinned thread). But what about Werner? This is a situation you're likely going to see at Chelsea, Werner drops, pulls out a CB = Mount/Kai run in behind.
Also, either of the 3 will rotate as a false-9(Pulisic has been trained to do this too). For that central 3 to work it's about constantly rotating makes it difficult for teams to keep track. Werner can even facilitate a winger to make these runs by shifting wide for Ziyech.
But obviously there's games where you absolutely have to start a target man like Giroud & withdraw Werner either to the winger or 10. But there's games where you expect to press very high then Tammy Abraham is your guy.
That's it.
That's it.
