00:00Hello there, everybody. Welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel and welcome also to me, Adam Cleary.
00:05And fair play if you had a tenner on that one, because not only are Chelsea the club World Cup
00:11champions,
00:12which I believe is the term, but they've absolutely smashed PSG in the process.
00:17Which, you know, given half the country tuned in purely for a hate watch and to see how badly they
00:23were going to get beat is really funny, if you ask me.
00:27So let's have a look at how they did that, because I think it was not only a fantastic performance
00:32from Enzo Mareska and the tactical planning side,
00:35but the way the players executed it was also brilliant.
00:42Now, of course, before we begin, my contractually obligated reminder to you that all of our club World Cup coverage
00:48is brought to you in partnership with our broadcast buddies, DAZN.
00:52You can go and watch back every single game. There's, like, highlights of all, like, 63 of them.
00:57They've got loads of European football coming up across the summer.
01:00There's some boxing, if that's your bag.
01:03And the money they've pumped into the creator economy this summer is going to keep British football YouTube going for
01:09about the next five years.
01:10So great bunch of lads, if you ask me.
01:12Anyway, now, yes, right.
01:13So PSG have looked invincible over the last couple of months.
01:17I saw a stat somewhere that if you consider these five of the best teams in the world, then the
01:21record against them is 15-0 this season.
01:25But there is, and I'm just really feeling the stick today, sorry, there is something you can do off the
01:30ball that will stop them.
01:31And there is something you can do on the ball which will hurt them.
01:36Neither of them are easy, which is why it feels like nobody's managed it in a very long time.
01:40But Chelsea somehow managed to do both of them perfectly.
01:45You cannot press them recklessly.
01:47You saw against Madrid that they will just take the piss and knock it through you.
01:51But also, you can't sit off them too much either because by adding Hakimi and Mendes into the attack and
01:57Vitina dropping out and find space,
01:59they will always manage to manufacture a little gap or a way to get in regardless.
02:05So you've got to be really solid, and this was Chelsea starting 11 in the final, right.
02:09You've got to be really solid, but stay solid as you move up the pitch to press them and backwards
02:16to defend.
02:17If you want to go high, that is fine, but you've got to get absolutely everybody high and stop there
02:22being gaps in the midfield.
02:23And if you want to defend, you've got to get everybody back to defend to completely deny them space through
02:29the centre.
02:29And this is the part of the video where the praise goes entirely to Enzo Morescu because he got this
02:34game plan absolutely perfect.
02:36Like, Chelsea would press high.
02:38They would try and disrupt PSG in their own box to stop the build-up, to force them to kick
02:43long.
02:43But as soon as these four players got bypassed in any way, they would stay really compact as a team
02:49and drop all the way back.
02:51And while, yes, it was a 4-2-3-1, what you actually had is Enzo Fernandes on the left,
02:56Cole Palmer on the right, these three in front.
02:59Pedro Neto would drop all the way back into this sort of back five to deny the space, and you
03:05wound up with this sort of 5-2-3 shape.
03:08And the beauty of dropping into a back five here is it stops PSG's front attacking five from dragging anybody
03:14out of position or creating a little pocket of space.
03:17You can always shuffle over, you can always go man for man, and Chelsea were doing that really aggressively in
03:23the first half, following players across the pitch.
03:26And the really, really, really clever part about this is that Neto and Gusto are two of your most athletic,
03:32relentless runners.
03:34So as soon as the ball is turned over anywhere on the pitch, they would jump all the way forward,
03:40and you've immediately got an attacking front five as well.
03:44Now, this is, I think, like the 12-minute mark or something.
03:46You can see the back five, you can see the shape, you can see that Neto is dropped in here
03:50to deny them space, but as soon as they turn it over, he is the one busting a gut to
03:58get up and try and lead that breakaway.
04:00It was sort of like a dual role both him and Gusto had.
04:04Like, you even look at the first goal, like, it's a direct ball out from the back by Robert Sanchez,
04:08but who is it to?
04:09Who is the most advanced player in Chelsea's attack at this point?
04:12It's right back, Male Gusto.
04:14Chelsea made a real, real point of targeting this side of the pitch, which we're going to talk about in
04:20a second, because it is a bit of a known weakness for PSG.
04:24Like, you can see Luis Enrique here, when Gusto wins this duel, he just turns away, can't watch, because he
04:31knows they're in a lot of trouble there.
04:33He breaks in behind the defence, Chelsea've got the numbers to get up and support him, it winds up with
04:38Palmer, and that's 1-0.
04:40And I think at that point, we're all like, oh, what's going on here?
04:45But the thing is, I'm going to show you two images here, because I think this contrast is very funny.
04:51This is the build-up to the first goal that you've just seen, but this is the build-up to
04:57the second goal.
04:58Now, PSG, who have just got here in red for simplicity's sake, right, when they're attacking you, one way or
05:03another, they get into a back three, don't they?
05:05Because either one of the full-backs goes forward, and the other one tucks around, or they both go forward
05:12to get a little bit more time, a little bit more space, a little bit more sort of fun on
05:16the ball.
05:17Vitinha drops into the left centre-back position, doesn't he?
05:21Or if you're the opposition, he drops into your right-hand half space.
05:26Now, just looking at those two images again, for 1,000 points, can you guess what area of the pitch
05:33Chelsea thought PSG might be weak in the transitions?
05:38And this is why I said at the start of the video, when I had my pointy stick, that there
05:41is an obvious way you can hurt PSG.
05:45Like, obviously, it's not as easy as all of that.
05:49You have to be winning you on V1s, which isn't easy, and you have to be outworking them, both on
05:54and off the ball, which isn't easy.
05:55But if you are doing that, then that's the part of the pitch you can really start to get at
06:00them in.
06:00And if you look at both those pictures, they're the same picture.
06:06But the thing is, right, while this is obviously very good, it's not Chelsea's best moment in this game.
06:12Because in their best moments, they didn't just execute their game plan really well.
06:17They out-Enrique'd Enrique.
06:21So we covered this in the semi-final video, right?
06:23PSG demolished Real Madrid by manipulating their press, by deliberately moving some of their players around and playing into the
06:31space they had created on purpose.
06:34And for the third goal, if you wind it back far enough, Chelsea do this exact thing to PSG.
06:40Like, you can see Gusto here. He's not particularly high, but he is as wide as he can be.
06:46There is a massive gap between him and Rhys James.
06:49And specifically, Rhys James is not looking to get over there and help him.
06:53He's looking to maintain the size of that gap.
06:57Chalivert comes to join in.
06:58Gusto rolls the ball back to him.
07:00And look at his body language the second he does.
07:04He is immediately telling his teammate, we've done it.
07:08It's on.
07:08Which is how you can tell they've worked on this.
07:10Chalivert fires the ball directly where Gusto is pointing through the gap that he and James have made.
07:16And oh, would you look at that?
07:18Where does it end up going?
07:20Cole Palmer has pulled away from his marker and is in, say it with me everyone, the right-hand half
07:27space.
07:27And from there, you could not hope to get a more picture-perfect front five.
07:33Gusto has immediately joined in.
07:35Neto is now on the opposite side.
07:37You've got Enzo, Pedro and Palmer as that three in the middle.
07:42PSG do not know what to do here.
07:44They again just cannot reset well enough or quick enough.
07:47They end up with a back four in this god-awful shape.
07:50And Chelsea punish them just brilliantly.
07:54And this is why I said at the start that it is simultaneously a brilliant tactical performance from Mureska,
07:59but also individual execution from the players.
08:02Because it's all well and good having these ideas to create these openings.
08:05But in this pass, in this movement, in this through ball, in this finish,
08:10you see brilliant, brilliant execution from the players involved.
08:15Like it's very easy to mess any part of that up.
08:18And likewise, you might be thinking, well, okay, that explains how Chelsea defended really well and stopped PSG.
08:23And hit them on the counter.
08:24But how did they deal with PSG's press?
08:27Which is like the scariest thing about PSG.
08:30And, well, they just bypassed it entirely.
08:33As soon as the squeeze was on, either Sanchez or the defenders would go really long from the back.
08:39Which sounds incredibly simple.
08:41But A, you have to be really accurate with it.
08:44Otherwise, the ball just comes straight back.
08:46And B, you have to scrap really well for it where it ends up landing.
08:52Otherwise, the ball just comes straight back.
08:54And Sanchez is going to get a lot of praise in this game for the saves he was making,
08:58which were obviously absolutely massive.
08:59But his distribution was probably one of Chelsea's best weapons.
09:03And likewise, when it was getting up the other end of the pitch,
09:05Pedro de Lapp, when he came on, Gusto for that first goal,
09:08they were winning those individual battles against PSG.
09:12So it was an individual victory as much as a tactical one.
09:16And just one final point to add to all of that, right?
09:19As good as this is, if you're only going to have one third of the ball
09:23and the momentum graph in terms of the passes and how much you're getting dominated looks like this,
09:28you are still going to concede chances.
09:31But another huge individual element of this for Chelsea was the individual defending.
09:36So forget the shape, forget the structure, forget the back five.
09:41But would these moments from Chelsea players that single-handedly stop PSG getting a foothold in this match?
09:49Yes, the saves from Sanchez.
09:51But this interception from Cucurea, the game reading required for that.
09:55Colwell was in the right place at the right time.
09:57Even João Pedro taking the ball off this guy's foot from a set piece.
10:03So yes, tactically, I thought Chelsea were perfect in this game.
10:06But more importantly, they won everything individually on top of that, which is why the whole thing worked.
10:12It bodes incredibly well for them next season, provided they can get a sufficient rest between now and then.
10:20Because these extra games, the lack of a break plus the fixture pileup with the Champions League,
10:26that could prove to be their biggest challenge next season.
10:30But all things being equal, it feels to me like they're right back up there.
10:34So yes, there you go.
10:36That's the entire Club World Cup done with.
10:39Which, if nothing else, did give us this moment of just unbelievable football surrealism.
10:47Ah, congratulations.
10:48I hear your move even further out to the right wing has proved very popular with your supporters.
10:55Said one of them.
10:57Anyway, yes, that's it for the video.
10:59Please let us know what you made of Chelsea's performance across the tournament as a whole.
11:01And how happy are you, if you are a Chelsea fan, that they've won $100 million or whatever the prize
11:08was in the comments below.
11:09As well as just, I don't know, how are you getting on?
11:11I like to hear from you.
11:13You can find me across all the social medias at Adam Peary, C-L-E-R-Y.
11:16And if you have not done already, please subscribe to us here at ACFC
11:18as we continue our charge to footballing immortality or whatever you're supposed to say.
11:25Thank you once again to our broadcast buddies, DAZN, for sponsoring all of our Club World Cup coverage.
11:31Got one more video on it where we will be discussing the tournament as a whole, warts and all.
11:36So look out for that one.
11:37Don't forget to click the link in the description.
11:39You can sign up for DAZN and have yourself a very, very, very good time.
11:42But until then, that's it.
11:46Congratulations, Chelsea.
11:47I don't think anyone saw that coming.
11:49And that always makes it 10 times sweeter, in my opinion.
11:52So goodbye.
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