- 9 hours ago
Liam Rosenior has had a great start to life as Chelsea manager, winning 8 of his 11 games. Adam Clery looks at how he has changed the team's system, and found new ways to get the best out of Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel, and today, if you don't mind, we are going to
00:05give Liam Rossenia his flowers.
00:09That's an expression you're familiar with.
00:11Now there was a lot of sneering at him getting the job, there was a lot of memes, but I
00:14think he has already made a lot of very smart and very effective changes to the way Chelsea play.
00:21So we're going to look at some of them right now, and also, he might have turned Enzo Fernandes into
00:29Zidane.
00:30Which is... cool.
00:34And before we start, a very quick reminder, as ever, that we are brought to you in partnership with our
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00:55So first up, this is something we showed you in the preview piece we did about how he likes to
01:01play football.
01:02This is a Strasbourg team attempting to bait the opposition into pressing them so that they can play through the
01:08gaps.
01:08Now normally, just having the ball at the back is a pretty good way to do this, because that is
01:13where opposition teams do want to take it off you.
01:17But this absolutely unhinged use of the goalkeeper was designed to, A, make it easier to play through because you've
01:24got an extra man,
01:25but B, because it's leaving the goal literally open, make it just too tempting for a lot of teams not
01:33to try and press you in this area,
01:35even if that's not what they've been instructed to do.
01:38Now don't get me wrong, I did not think Chelsea were going to attempt to do something exactly like this,
01:43because Robert Sanchez, who, let's be fair here, is having a much better season than most people give him credit
01:49for,
01:50is still not that guy.
01:54Now don't get me wrong, I think he can pass the ball very effectively, yes,
01:57but if you stick him all the way out here and tell him to start inviting pressure onto himself,
02:04he is going to have a very, very bad time.
02:08And likewise, while I think Chelsea do have a lot of competent options in possession at centre-back,
02:15they haven't got anybody who's really going to flourish in this sort of situation at Premier League level.
02:22But just regardless of who exactly is doing what, you look at these moments,
02:26and the principles are still, invite the press and then play through it.
02:31And that is just Liam Resenia's footballing philosophy.
02:34So the challenge for him at Chelsea was how do you do this bit here without necessarily having to do
02:41this bit here?
02:42And if we watch the goal, one of them, they scored against Leeds United,
02:46you will see that he has in fact found that solution.
02:51So, fundamentally, whether it is central or it is wide,
02:54what Chelsea are looking to do in possession is to be as patient and as deep as they can be
03:01to try and encourage as many opposition players forward as they can
03:06and effectively separate the line of pressure as far as you can from the line of defence.
03:12And it's in the space you make by doing that, the players will drop off and they'll try to attack.
03:18And you saw that at Strasbourg, right?
03:19It does not matter how long you have to knock it around at the back to bait this gap.
03:24They will be patient with it.
03:26But when it does open up, then directly and collectively,
03:30you try and get it forward to make a chance as quickly as you can.
03:35And you can see that's what they do here.
03:38Like, there are low percentage passes Andre Santos can play from this position.
03:43He could go over the top to try and get Estevão into the channel,
03:46but that's not going to be towards goal.
03:48That's going to be down a blind alley.
03:50So, naturally, you'd expect a player in this situation to just turn around and go back to the defence.
03:56But he doesn't do that, does he?
03:58Instead, he plays what is maybe, theoretically, the stupidest pass available to him
04:04and gives it to Enzo Fernandes, who has four players in very close proximity.
04:11And on the face of it, that looks really daft to me.
04:16Why make the one pass open to you that actually increases your chances,
04:20quite significantly, I'd say, of losing the ball when you don't have to do that?
04:26Well, because if I can say that's a stupid idea,
04:29then so can all four of these Leeds players here.
04:32And as soon as it goes into Fernandes, they forget about what is around them,
04:36what's behind them, and they try to jump him instead.
04:40But because that is part of the plan, that is literally what Resenia is coaching them to do,
04:45Fernandes isn't actually in any danger at all.
04:48He immediately gets the ball out of this area and goes back to the defender,
04:52making the Leeds press think that they got Chelsea on the back foot
04:56and they all spring forwards.
04:59But if, at the moment, that ball gets to Chalibur, right, we just stop it there,
05:04all five of the Leeds players in this press are facing forward.
05:09They're not scanning around.
05:10They're going after the ball and they've lost track of what is around them and behind them.
05:15And as a result of being baited in like this,
05:18they're now all a good few yards further forward and away from the defence
05:22than they were at the very start of this.
05:25And oh boy, would you look at that, Cole Palmer, one of the players they were looking to have
05:29occupying this space, is now occupying this space.
05:35So you compare that with what he was doing at Strasbourg and what have you got?
05:38You've got patience with the ball in your own build-up, check.
05:42You've got creating a tantalising situation that the opposition cannot resist pressing, check.
05:47And you've got creating space through that that you can then get the ball into
05:51and attack the goal directly, check, Petr, check.
05:55It goes to Andre Santos, he finds Cole Palmer.
05:57And all of a sudden, even though Leeds have a massive numerical advantage here,
06:02they are panicking.
06:04And Chelsea can get João Pedro into the space behind the defence.
06:08So from this moment here to this moment here,
06:12you've got three passes and it's in the back of the net.
06:15And this is a little bit later on in the same game, right?
06:19This time Chelsea gets Sanchez involved, which is obviously very enticing for Leeds.
06:23Cole Palmer drops all the way into his own half, also very enticing.
06:27But what is interesting about how they get out here is it's not really any good
06:32to give the ball to someone in a good position if they can't get turned with it.
06:38Like go back to the goal we just showed you, right?
06:40Yes, Cole Palmer is facing the wrong way when he shows for this ball,
06:44but there's enough time and enough space that he can take a touch and he can get turned,
06:48which is fine.
06:49However, this time he cannot.
06:52So instead, when it comes to him, it's an immediate layoff to the defender
06:56who can access that space between the lines that they're looking for.
07:00And if you want to see, right, what good coaching looks like in real life,
07:05how you bring an idea to a group of players,
07:07you get them all on board with it and you get them to use it effectively,
07:10just watch how they end up accessing that space.
07:14Just like with Palmer, Pedro is in the right area, but he can't get turned either.
07:20But he shows for the ball anyway.
07:22And again, just like Palmer, it's an immediate one-touch drop-off to Estevão,
07:27who couldn't have received the ball initially,
07:30but now that he's got it, is in a position to play forward.
07:33Which he does, immediately puts the shit up Joe Rodon by just running at him straight away.
07:39And again, leads have a numerical advantage and yes, nothing actually comes of it this time.
07:44But once again, from this situation back here to this just shot or whatever the hell it was later on,
07:51you've only got like three passes, four passes.
07:55Now, both of those are quite specific examples.
07:58They both involve Cole Palmer being used to access a central space.
08:02But what makes this idea so effective is how flexible it can be.
08:08The only goal, as we said, is to split the opposition line of pressure from the opposition defensive line.
08:14And all it really requires is for any player in this build-up here,
08:18they'll tend to have two centre-backs, sometimes split by the goalkeeper,
08:21and then this four here, and it could be any sort of combination.
08:25Sometimes Enzo Fernandes is there, sometimes he's there.
08:27He swaps with Cucurea and stuff like that.
08:29But any player from this block here with the ball can find any player from this block here
08:36pushing up against the defence once they drop into that space.
08:41And because Liam Rossini has moved Enzo Fernandes out to the left,
08:45who we're going to get to in a little bit, by the way,
08:48sometimes he will be in this group here, out there, looking to find the pass into the forwards.
08:53But other times, he'll be here, looking to receive it, looking to drop into the middle,
08:57to get into this space that he's very good in.
09:00And he can swap with Cucurea very easily.
09:03And these two are by far the most notable rotation that they keep doing,
09:06but they have got the freedom to make the pass from here into here pretty much however they see fit,
09:13however they're able to do it.
09:14Once they've created that gap between the press and the defensive line,
09:18it doesn't matter who makes the pass, it doesn't matter who receives it,
09:21so long as that's what they're trying to do.
09:23Like, these examples are all from the Wolves game.
09:26And you can see, time and again, it's Parma, it's Neto, it's João Pedro.
09:31They're all free to get into that space.
09:34And they'll either knock it on to play forward,
09:36or turn themselves and attack as quickly as they can.
09:41And do you know what it is?
09:42I personally really like this as a pattern of play that Liam Rossini has brought into Chelsea
09:48because it immediately fixes one of the biggest problems you used to constantly hear
09:53about Enzo Mareska's style of play.
09:55And it does that without creating an even bigger problem as a consequence.
10:00Under the Italian, right, Chelsea would play with intricacy
10:04and occasionally a little bit of urgency at the back.
10:08But by the time they got it into the final third,
10:10they would occasionally get a bit ponderous, a bit risk-averse with it, I think.
10:16And you'd see this all the time, like teams would gum them up through the middle of the pitch
10:19and they'd go around the houses, sort of gently looking for a way in.
10:23But here, they are ponderous and they are slow at the back, but deliberately so.
10:29They're trying to work the space required to then be quick and then be intricate
10:34in the areas where that actually really matters.
10:38Just all of that occasionally quite tedious work Chelsea would have to do
10:43breaking down the opposition in their third,
10:46they're now pretty much doing in their own third.
10:49And the key to this, I would say, has been the repositioning of Enzo Fernandes
10:54and, by extension, the opportunities that has created for Andre Santos.
11:00Like, I'm not saying Santos is a better player than Fernandes,
11:04but he is, maybe, better for this exact style of football.
11:10He keeps things so simple.
11:12He never takes too many touches and he's got a real knack
11:15for these first-time forward passes that allow Chelsea to get into the spaces
11:20that they've opened up.
11:22He's also, as well, just like this great combination of robustness
11:26and, like, technical ability, which means when you are baiting in these presses,
11:31he's secure, he can take the contact, and then he can play in these tight spaces.
11:36And don't get me wrong, his stats are not going to blow your head off.
11:39But when you look at them and you sort of, like, scrutinise the stuff that really matters,
11:44per 90 minutes, he's in the top 5%, or the bottom 5%, I don't know how you'd word that,
11:49for getting dispossessed.
11:51I think his raw number is that literally he's only had his pocket picked twice all season,
11:57which makes him, like, one of the most secure on the ball midfielders in the Premier League.
12:03The jewels he wins, that's really high, like, top 13% or something,
12:06and tackles and interceptions are at the very top end as well.
12:10And I just would like to say again, I think Enzo Fernandes is a remarkable footballer,
12:15but this exact specific job at the base of Liam Resenia's midfield
12:19requires a player with no ego, with incredible work rate,
12:24with the ability to physically dominate a game.
12:27And Santos has come in and looked like he's been playing it for forever.
12:31And, as we all know, turfing out one of your star players
12:34to accommodate someone who was purely there for the system almost never ends well,
12:41but I think Resenia deserves a lot of credit as well
12:44for coming up with this new role that keeps Fernandes in the team.
12:48He started, like, three games out there now, and it worked really well for him
12:52because he's basically told to start wide and then just rove around looking for the space.
12:58And if we just look at his total heat and pass map from that Leeds United game,
13:03then you'll see that's way more touchline work than you would ever normally see from Enzo Fernandes,
13:08but at the same time, it's still about as much play in the centre of the pitch
13:12as you would hope to see from him.
13:14Like, a player of his skill set needs to be getting used in this really important area
13:19right outside the box or in either of these two half spaces if that's where he's comfortable.
13:24And despite starting on the left, you can see he is there a lot.
13:29And if we just filter this down to not all of his passes,
13:31but to the chances he created, he had, like, four just in the first half,
13:36which is really, really good.
13:38And these ones, in particular, are pretty much just from the number 10 position.
13:43You would not expect those to be coming from the guy who started out on the left wing.
13:48And in fact, if we go back to that goal earlier where they find Cole Palmer between the lines,
13:52just look at what Andre Santos' other passing option was here.
13:57Enzo drifting in off the wing into that exact same space.
14:02And when you combine that sort of positional freedom to come in off the left
14:07with the fact that Cole Palmer starts central, but really wants to move out to about here,
14:11and the fact that Marc Cucurea has both the engine and the mindset and that dog in him
14:18to give you all this width down that side,
14:21and you've got something that works really, really effectively.
14:24Like, Fernandes does not get a key pass for this, but he might as well.
14:28The way he makes the space for Cucurea and then manages to feed him the ball.
14:33Like, this is just, from top to bottom, a really, really good use of him.
14:37They're going to be wrong.
14:38I do think the teams may start to target this.
14:42Like, when Chelsea really have to defend a bit and he drops in,
14:45we're going to see how keen his defensive instincts are when he's out on this side.
14:49I think that could be an issue for the future, but right now, it's great.
14:54So, yes, overall, I think Liam Rossini has done a lot of good stuff since he's come in at Chelsea,
14:58and I know some people haven't been blown away yet,
15:01so I'm going to get a little bit of stick for that Arsenal game,
15:04but the reality is, Maresca is a top-level manager,
15:07and his results prior to the change were sporadic.
15:11They were sketchy.
15:12They were not good, and if nothing else,
15:15Liam Rossini is putting together a really good run of results,
15:19and when you actually watch them play, you can see why they appear to be improving.
15:24He's taken what the previous manager has done, and he's put his own stamp on it,
15:29and I think, genuinely, they look really, really good.
15:32In the meantime, you can get me across all the social medias,
15:34at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y,
15:36where if you've heard the word running and thought,
15:38oh boy, I hope he occasionally posts some pictures of his knees,
15:42you will not be disappointed.
15:43And if you haven't already subscribed to ACFC,
15:46you can do that at the button down below.
15:47That makes me happy as well.
15:49In the meantime, though, that's it.
15:51We'll be back soon with more content about football, which you like.
15:56I should start writing these outros out, I think.
16:00I'm getting weirder.
16:01Goodbye.
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