00:00Look at this, Chelsea in a 4v4 on the edge of their own box against Wrexham.
00:04Now believe it or not, this all stems back to Chelsea's work on the opposite end of the pitch
00:08and is exactly why Liam Rosinia's Chelsea are massively struggling.
00:12I'm Jacob Horsforth, 4-4-2's resident tactician and this is why Chelsea can't stop conceding.
00:21Liam Rosinia has stated we press in a different way to most teams, it's a new way of pressing.
00:26So, my mate Liam, why is it not working?
00:30Well, it's probably because Chelsea do go man-to-man in a sense but they use jumps and them jumps,
00:35well they're the key.
00:36They want a plus one in the back line but one midfielder will cover both halves and jump to join
00:41that man-to-man press if the situation needs them to.
00:44However, it feels like Chelsea are almost too committed to going man-to-man in the press.
00:49PSG are aware of Chelsea's press and therefore they overload the left-hand side of the pitch.
00:53This drags Chelsea's defence to the left-hand side so that they can join that man-to-man press once
00:57PSG play out from the back.
00:59However, they don't count on PSG going long to the unloaded side of the pitch which leaves Sar out in
01:04a 1v1 facing his own goal with Kamat Scalier.
01:07Now, I don't need to tell you why that's a massive, massive problem.
01:11I mean, literally everyone and anyone does not want to be going 1v1 whilst facing their own goal.
01:16But, because Chelsea are so dedicated to their man-to-man approach, even when there's no pressure on the ball
01:21from the front line, this is a regular occurrence for them.
01:24Like, even against Wrexham, this situation happens. Chelsea are in a man-to-man press across the whole pitch but
01:29there's no actual pressure on the man with the ball, Callum Doyle.
01:33So, this man darts back from an advanced position, pulling one Chelsea defender out and then Wrexham just play a
01:38long ball forward which has the Wrexham front line in a 2v2 against the Chelsea centre-backs.
01:42It goes all the way over all four of them and sends the Wrexham striker barrelling through on goal.
01:47Which is a huge, huge problem, not just for the fact someone's through on goal but for a team like
01:51Chelsea who should be and want to control territory.
01:54A long ball shouldn't destroy their out-of-possession settle.
01:57In this instance, Kukurea should be committing high and marking the full-back here. Instead, he's marking Jacob Murphy and
02:03that's because Tino Levermento has inverted into the middle of the pitch, operating between the two Chelsea pressing forwards.
02:09Now, if we're following the man-to-man pressing scheme, Chalabas should probably commit forward here to mark Levermento and
02:14prevent him from getting on the ball.
02:15But a centre-back does not want to be operating that high up the pitch.
02:19So, that means that Levermento has so much space to get on the ball and drive forward with it.
02:24And because every Chelsea player is committed to going man-to-man with their marker, it's very hard for them
02:29to come across and actually commit a challenge on Levermento.
02:31So, he just glides forward and slips Willock through on goal.
02:34It is largely a miscommunication issue but if you look at the man-to-man press, because Kukurea has had
02:39to mark the winger so high up, which should be Chalabas' man,
02:42technically, Kukurea and Chalabas' roles have completely switched. So, Chalabas should commit to that press.
02:47But that is the problem if you go man-to-man. Sometimes, players can be too committed to their roles.
02:52However, we have seen adaptations in certain scenarios and that's one midfielder being a little bit more zonal in different
02:58scenarios.
02:59Which is normal and ideal. If this man drops off a little bit, it means that, well, Newcastle wouldn't have
03:04had all that space in the centre of the pitch to, well, just walk straight through.
03:08But, that also has its issues because it means this man here can receive under minimal pressure and play through
03:13the lines before any Chelsea player can actually get to him.
03:16And that's because Moises Caicedo has dropped off a bit to prevent anyone driving through the central space or immediately
03:22trying to play through the lines from that back line.
03:24But, that creates a fair bit of distance between him and Adam Wharton.
03:27So, if Adam Wharton receives quickly, he can turn and play before Caicedo can actually jump onto it.
03:32Which is probably why Moises Caicedo has the second most fouls per 90 in the Chelsea squad.
03:36He's regularly the man who has to jump from that zonal marking area to join that press, which means he's
03:42often arriving late and is forced into committing a foul.
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05:03You got the point now?
05:04Well, get back to that video.
05:06Now, with Chelsea, it's not just about pressing high.
05:08They've also come undone in their rest defence.
05:11Here, PSG are breaking, but Chelsea are in a relatively solid position to drop back and cover the space between
05:16the ball and their goal.
05:17Instead, Chaliba makes the decision to jump toward the ball, putting these two Chelsea players into recovery mode, trying to
05:22cut that pass off in behind their defence.
05:25Which, I think, stems all the way back to the man-to-man pressure stuff.
05:28At every opportunity, Chelsea players are looking to jump man-to-man and expecting the players behind them to, well,
05:33do the recovery work, pick up the pieces, cover for them, stepping out of their position.
05:38That definitely does come back to the players that Chelsea have and their in-game IQ,
05:41but I think it's also kind of part and parcel of the identity that Liam Resignia is trying to create
05:47at Chelsea.
05:48Looking at their defensive solidity map, they're pretty solid in the attacking third,
05:51but the red zones in the mid-third and in their own box are a serious worry,
05:56especially next to Enzo Mareska's version of the map, because the press was still there, but they also covered Zipa
06:02zones way better.
06:03These deeper runs from players who start in the front line and drop in to receive the ball just murder
06:08Chelsea.
06:09Because the players seem to just panic as soon as they see that player get on the ball and try
06:13to converge onto the ball as quick as they possibly can.
06:15Which is a problem, because rather than just recognising the pressing structure has been broken,
06:19they seem to hit panic mode and think, we need the ball, we cannot let them play.
06:23Which means teams just play slip-through balls, straight through the lines.
06:27And I also think that kind of panic mode, that recovery stations that they're in,
06:30prevents them from actually being able to control situations, because it's all about the ball,
06:34it's all about winning the ball, rather than managing a situation, like a top team really shows.
06:39The six teams with the most fouls in the league are mostly teams near the bottom, and then you've got
06:43Chelsea.
06:44Now for teams like Tottenham, West Ham or Wolves, it's reasonable this season.
06:49It's very, very rare that they're actually going to be in control of the flow of a game,
06:52but for a top team like Chelsea, they shouldn't be in that panic mode,
06:56they shouldn't be in that recovery mode, which leads them committing so many fouls.
07:00However, I will say, it does make a lot of sense.
07:03The last four games have all been losses for Chelsea, but if you look at all four teams,
07:07they heavily use rotations to create space.
07:10Those rotations of positions that you see here, pull that man-to-man pressure all over the shot,
07:15which manipulates the roles of the Chelsea midfield, the Chelsea defence and even the Chelsea front line.
07:20And due to the desire to be aggressive and win the ball, teams just pop the ball around really quickly,
07:25pull Chelsea apart and, well, Rossini is no longer ageing men.
07:29He's, erm, ageing the Chelsea fan base by conceding lots of goals.
07:35I really need to stop with these jokes.
07:37But the big question, Adhantia, outside of my horrific comedy, is, is all hope lost for Chelsea?
07:43Well, no, I don't think it is just yet.
07:46Prior to the last four games, Chelsea had lost just one game in their last four Premier League fixtures.
07:50And it's easy to forget that this is only the start of the Liam Rossini era.
07:55And if you have enjoyed today's video, please do leave a like, subscribe and also drop a little hype on
08:00the video.
08:00It really, really helps us.
08:02And I'll see you again next week for some more brilliant analysis on football's biggest topics.
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