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Tactical Analysis of the PL game between Crystal Palace and Chelsea.
CHO-lwell providing width, spaces in midfield again and how Ziyech will change the balance. #BHACHE
CHO-lwell providing width, spaces in midfield again and how Ziyech will change the balance. #BHACHE
A while back I suggested Chelsea to set up in a 2-3-5 shape with Chilwell and Hudson-Odoi wide while Reece James inverts. The reason is that we struggled to hold width in games. Reece James isnt exactly the full back to use the full length of the pitch, Chilwell is exactly that.
This is also how Arteta played vs Palace last season. Pepe and Kolasinac keep the width. Aubameyang (Werner) drifts inside from the left wing. Maitland Niles (Reece James) inverts. Ozil (Havertz) occupies the right half space but has more of a free role.
Chelsea did set up this way as you can see from the images. Chilwell and CHO have tons of space and are isolated for 1v1s. Besides that, having 2 players out wide helps to stretch the opposition by forcing full backs wide. This opens up channels between the defenders.
Instead of Reece James it was Azpilicueta starting and he could fulfill any role at RB. When needed he came inside to form a back 3. Sometimes he even overlapped and there were rare cases where he played slightly more central near the midfield.
Jorginho similar to Xhaka under Arteta dropped deeper quite often to become the 3rd CB 
Werner, despite a lot of disagreements, was played similar to the way he played at Leipzig.
Despite playing as a winger he drifted inside to replicate a front two alongside Tammy. He would then rotate with other players. In the example below he's switched positions with Jorginho
Despite playing as a winger he drifted inside to replicate a front two alongside Tammy. He would then rotate with other players. In the example below he's switched positions with Jorginho
He then gets rid of the ball and immediately makes a run forward. Jorginho has occupied his man leaving Werner unmarked.
When attacking Chelsea kept a very high line allowing them to counter press immediately when losing the ball.
But when they pressed in any other situations (not immediately after losing the ball) the defence line was very low and there was a huge gap in midfield as both Kante and Jorginho were forced to help out wide. Chelsea were lucky not to get punished for this.
Last season Crystal Palace scored from this exact situation vs Chelsea https://twitter.com/DictatorJorgi/status/1287834522738991104?s=20
Chelsea also struggled in build up, the lack of passing options resulted in defenders playing it long whenever Palace tried to press the defenders. But for the majority of the game Crystal Palace sat back, build up was never going to be a problem this game.
I've said this many times, you don't beat Lampard's Chelsea by sitting back. You need to take the game to them.
A big problem for me is Ziyech's place in this team. He spoils that front 5 dynamic by playing more central. A lot of people had voiced their concerns about Ziyech occupying the same position as Havertz on the pitch. This doesn't block Havertz or anything like that...
...the problem with 2 players occupying the same position is that the player with the ball has one less passing option. If Ziyech stays wide the player will have an extra passing option as pictured below. https://twitter.com/DictatorJorgi/status/1305873096235155457?s=20
Those are my thoughts on the game. You can also read my analysis of Chelsea vs Brighton, Chelsea vs Liverpool and other football stuff here: https://twitter.com/i/events/1297225219875250178?s=20
