Thread by @cfctekZ, Review on Lampard’s decisions.Analysis: Chelsea vs West Brom[T H R E A [...]

Review on Lampard’s decisions.
Analysis: Chelsea vs West Brom
[T H R E A D]

Chelsea started with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Kovacic-Kante pivot and Havertz as number 10 role. Tammy had a very good partnership with havertz against Barnsley and it was fair enough to start both of em with Havertz playing just behind Tammy.

I assume that Lampard thought Tammy has a very good sense of dropping deep and with havertz making quick runs behind the defense which does add up for a very good attacking threat. (similar to vid where mount makes the run)

But seemingly, Werner was found to play way more centrally which leads to another assumption that is shown in the vid. Well, there weren't many recurrent situations similar to these but I'm basing assumption this as Werner made many runs to the centre.

The reason why there werent many patterns becos West Brom were playing with a 5-4-1 formation.This lead to havertz being right in between 5 defs and 4 mids. It was way tough for Kovacic to find havertz b/w the lines as the no. of players in that part of field was way too much.

This steered Havertz drifting towards James and trying to link up with Mount,Kante, and James, forming a diamond. Alonso was utterly non-existent the whole half, which even pushed Werner towards a more centralized role.

As Havertz moved towards James, possibly every single attack came through the right flank which completely negated Werner's impact. Tammy would move towards the goal and drag the center backs while Werner would move towards the center.

This vid shows how crucial was Havertz in shifting towards right flank
The only blunder that Lampard committed is to play Alonso as it deeply affected Werner and obviously, he had a disgraceful performance. Lampard subbed him & Kovacic off at 2nd half and brought in CHO and azpi.

It made sense to remove Kovacic as it was expected that West Brom won't try to press hard and would try to defend their 3-nil lead as much as possible. Also, Kovacic isn't the best to dribble through attacking 3rd and finish.
Kante was lone DM & Mount & Havertz were attacking 8s.

CHO's impact was clearly visible as he likes to sit very deep and try to create chances. It wasn't the same case with Werner and Mount as they both aren't natural wingers and they didn't exploit any deep spaces which favored west Brom as their defense was very compact in 1st half

Lampard was right with subbing giroud on. West Brom sat deep into their half and with another striker, West Brom defense was forced to tight mark all 3 center-forwards and not come off their line to close down the attacker to prevent a long shot.

It's a massive risk to leave a center-forward alone when your defensive line is in your own box itself. It also made sense to remove silva as Azpi being right-footed, his overlapping runs in the left flank doesn't help a lot in attacking and Silva had a rusty game.

FL subbed in Giroud after Mount had scored & it does make sense to expect similar goal when you also have Havertz and CHO who have already shown promise about scoring from long range. Even if they don't score,there is a high chance to score from rebound for every shot on target.

Not all goals we conceded were individual mistakes.Goal from corner has the blame of the defensive structure also. Even though it was a poor marking of Alonso, we need to establish a definitive structure in defense. https://twitter.com/cfctekZ/status/1308422827448692738?s=20

https://twitter.com/cfctekZ/status/1308422827448692738?s=20

The reason why I'm stressing over defensive structure because, here, Reece wasn't marking anyone and was just forcing every CF to be onside.
The second goal's blame has to go towards James, Anthony Barry and obviously, Alonso.

My opinion-
CHO had to start this match because it was already expected that West Brom would stay deep and play compact. We needed to exploit the deep spaces in both the flanks. Also, why play CHO on the right flank when Reece is already playing a very deep role? Baffling.

Also could've rested Mount for the cup game and give CHO the chance to do what he does the best and could've exploited the opposition's weakness.
Anyways, eventually he did correct some of them and we somehow made a decent comeback.

Overall, it was a decent game that required some crucial decisions which had to be made at right time. We can't shrug it off with an excuse of individual mistakes but we do need some time to construct an objective opinion over Lampard and his decisions.

Also, do read my Liverpool game analysis. Genuinely welcome any arguments or constructive feedback