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Chelsea are a strange team. One minute they're electric in attack, the next they're defensively frail. Join FourFourTwo's Jacob Tanswell for a deep dive into the tactics behind the Premier League's most unpredictable side, breaking down their creative attacking patterns and the major flaws in their defensive press.
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00:00Chelsea are really weird. They can defend, but then they can't defend. And when they don't defend, they really do
00:08not defend very well.
00:10Then they can't attack sometimes, and other times they are absolutely electric. But J.P. Morgan isn't enough to be
00:19a top side in the modern Premier League.
00:21What? So what is it with Xabi Alonso's Chelsea? And how far away are this side from being a top
00:29team in England?
00:30Well, I'm Jacob Oswald, 4-4-2's resident tactician, and this is why Chelsea are the most unpredictable side in
00:37the Premier League.
00:40Morgan Rodgers, no surprise in that. Now, we know Chelsea can be incredible going forward at times.
00:47They've scored 10 league goals in the opening fixtures of the Premier League season, ranking them as the second most
00:52frequent bagsman in the division at the time of recording.
00:56But what I like about this side is that as much as Morgan Rodgers' brilliant ball-carrying and Cole Palmer's
01:01individual creativity get all the plaudits in this Chelsea side, their attack is a lot more than that.
01:09We often see them slightly under-loaded in attack due to them averaging 44.5% possession at the time
01:15of recording.
01:16So movement from all of Pedro, Palmer, and Rodgers is super important.
01:21And you see here, the ball is played to João Pedro, and he occupies four Brighton players, allowing Morgan Rodgers
01:28to go from a deep starting position to an area in which he has separation from the nearest defender.
01:33And that's what João Pedro has done so, so well in these opening games, and you saw just how much
01:38they missed Pedro against Brentford.
01:40They really didn't have that sort of glue in that attack, that player who could reliably make it stick.
01:45Because the Brazilian will happily step away from that leading role up top to pull players in and give other
01:51Chelsea players high-value opportunities.
01:53I mean, despite his side having far less of the ball this season compared to last season, he's still having
02:00pretty much the exact same touches of a football.
02:03Because he's sort of the centre of how this Chelsea side create opportunities.
02:08But it's not just him.
02:09This movement in the front line that you can happily see whenever you watch Chelsea seeps into the rest of
02:16the Chelsea team.
02:17Here, Maxence Lacroix is in possession, stepping out the back line after Rhys James has dropped in, ensuring Chelsea still
02:24have that 2v2 on the halfway line in their rest defence.
02:27But a midfielder dropping in, Rhys James in this case, also creates open space, so Lacroix can carry and play
02:33wide.
02:34But he doesn't just stop here.
02:36He carries his run on as Gusto comes inside, dragging his marker with him and opening up the central area
02:43for Ko Palmer to rotate into.
02:45And then, all of a sudden, Chelsea are in this lovely little 4v3 in the centre of the pitch.
02:50Which is how Chelsea have scored a lot of their goals this season.
02:53Yes, it's really direct.
02:54Yes, it's getting up to them front three attackers and just let them do a bit of beautiful magic.
02:59But it's also a lot of deep to high runs to make dummy runs, to get Ko Palmer in the
03:05pockets, to support players combining 1-2s on the edge of the area.
03:09And that's been really nice to see.
03:12However, as we know with Chelsea, quite a few goals go the other way.
03:21Now, this is the problem for me with Chelsea out of possession.
03:24Because here, they've actually done pretty well to cover the central options and it's a half-decent press.
03:28But there is a lot of risk in having both your midfield players jumping all the way onto the opposition's
03:3418-yard box to press their midfield.
03:36And it can work, absolutely, but not when your wing-back is jumping to the opposition's wide player and build
03:44-up as the ball is halfway to them.
03:46Because that's what Malagusta does here.
03:48He doesn't start his jump onto that wide leads player until the ball's halfway to him.
03:53Which gives that lead player time to take a touch, set himself, give enough time for other leads players to
03:58make some little movements and create space.
04:00And as we see, all he does is wait for one of the Chelsea centre-arves to commit out of
04:04that back line.
04:05And then you hit the channel to a wide 1v1.
04:08Which a lot of strikers in the Premier League nowadays love to begin.
04:12And Lucas Nemecha absolutely does.
04:14And that's the issue.
04:16Because it's not just like that was a one-off game where leads, you know, made the most of getting
04:20down the touchline against the Chelsea side.
04:22Who were a little bit unfortunate.
04:23No, you see this every single week where the centre-arves commit out of the back line.
04:28And then the opposition are through on goal just by going down that one of the left or the right
04:32channels.
04:33Now, a big reason for that is because when they press and potentially try and go man-to-man or
04:37are in the mid-third,
04:38these midfield players aren't, for me, entirely sure of their roles properly.
04:43There's usually a lot of confusion.
04:44You watch a Chelsea game, someone throws their hand up and asks what's going on.
04:47And because they consistently mistime their jumps as a result of being confused,
04:52it has a huge knock-on effect on those behind them who are then mistiming their jumps or are a
04:57yard away
04:57because that player jumped too early.
04:59And it has a huge effect on everyone else in the Chelsea side.
05:04Meaning it's not a surprise that when it comes to final third ball wins,
05:06they're near the bottom of the table at the time of recording.
05:09And it's a common occurrence for this Chelsea side.
05:12I mean, a lot of the stuff that you'll notice out of possession is something that's happening in every single
05:15game.
05:16But sides just happily play around their block and then just hook it down the touchline to a striker or
05:22a way.
05:22There's a winger who's stretching that back three that are sat there on the halfway line.
05:28And it just leaves so many gaps, so many holes, that teams can then play in and enter the final
05:32third really easily.
05:34Hull City played 74% of their attacks down the flanks when they went to the bridge.
05:38And Arsenal had 76% of their attacks go out wide when they hosted the Blues.
05:43But it isn't just the press that is causing Chelsea a lot of problems this season.
05:47As we mentioned earlier, there are huge knock-on effects by their final third pressing,
05:51which is leading some massive issues in deeper defensive states.
05:56They often sit in a 5-4-1 in their own half, but their biggest issue is again in those
06:01wide areas.
06:02Their wingers are zonal, but the problem is their distances seem all wrong.
06:07Again, Rodgers being at this 90-degree angle means it will take time to reach Ben White.
06:11He's also allowed Hato to go 1v1 with Saka, and he isn't quite deep enough to close the space around
06:18Kai Havertz.
06:19So that means a Chelsea centre-back steps wide to monitor the German striker,
06:23creating a huge disconnect across that back five.
06:27Now, another problem is that when this goes wide,
06:30Saka can take two touches before Hato has arrived and set himself to defend,
06:34which closes the actual window for him to win the ball and allow Saka to draw other Chelsea players over
06:41with small touches.
06:43Now, it's hard to properly place your finger on exactly why Chelsea have such big timing and jump issues,
06:51because it's the basics.
06:52I mean, I've watched every Chelsea game so far this season when I was writing the script.
06:57The Brentford game is not entirely part of this script, because this is filmed the morning after.
07:02But it feels like such basic stuff that they are continuously just messing up entirely,
07:10which leads us on to our next issue.
07:12But it does allow us to cast more of a positive light on Xavi Alonso and on this Chelsea side,
07:16which is what I always want to do if you watch a lot of the videos.
07:18I'm always looking to try and be positive.
07:21So, ladies and gentlemen, stick with me.
07:23Trust me, we're coming back to some good stuff.
07:26Chelsea are at it again, Martin, and we can't concede goals like that.
07:29It's really easy to criticise Xavi Alonso's Chelsea.
07:33Trust me, it really, really is.
07:35But we have to contextualise the problems that they have in order to truly understand
07:40how long-term these problems are going to be and how much actually falls on the shoulders of Xavi Alonso.
07:45The closest to his best pre-season team Alonso got was the one that met AC Milan.
07:50Now we see Moises Caicedo and Palestra featuring this side.
07:54In that game, the distances they had to cover when jumping were far smaller,
07:57and a lot of that is because of who Neto is pointing at here.
08:00Moises Caicedo.
08:02If we go forward slightly, we see Caicedo as basically a lone midfield player,
08:06which allows for the rest of the team to commit man-to-man and be brave out of possession.
08:11Now, in the Premier League, with a Gusto, or potentially a Lavia, or maybe a Rhys James,
08:18none of them have the distance coverage of Moises Caicedo.
08:21And that's not a slight on them.
08:23Moises Caicedo is just arguably one of the best defensive midfielders in world football.
08:26But his ability to cover such big distances allows other Chelsea players to jump earlier,
08:32to go and press without any hesitation,
08:34because they are so sure that Caicedo will probably bail them out.
08:39He will cover that ground to win the ball back.
08:42Like this scenario, Neto seems reluctant to leave that 1v1 behind him,
08:45so he doesn't jump.
08:47If Caicedo was maybe in this position,
08:49maybe the peace of mind that he knows Caicedo can cover the ground
08:52would encourage him to make that aggressive pressing move.
08:56And it's almost similar with Palestra.
08:57I think, especially with the wing-backs,
08:59we've obviously Neto's been playing there,
09:01and I think he's been all right.
09:04Really, really okay.
09:06Nothing much more than that.
09:07And then at left wing-back,
09:08you've sort of had a mix-up of loads of different players.
09:10We had Pep playing there against Brem Fad with Hagerl Hattel playing there.
09:14And these are players who maybe aren't entirely suited
09:17to what is a really complicated role within a Xavi Alonso system.
09:21So, bring in Palestra,
09:23who was a mainstay in the pre-season team prior to injury.
09:25Bring in Moises Caicedo with their distance coverage.
09:28And maybe we see a bit of a change
09:31to the way Chelsea are pressing teams
09:33and how effective they are when they do these pressing actions.
09:36However, we've got one more problem to look at,
09:38and it is this.
09:39This is a problem that's plagued Chelsea for God knows how long.
09:43They're in a 4v3 here, okay.
09:45Four versus three on the Hull attack.
09:48Hull City attack.
09:49Wesley Fafana is in arguably an ideal position
09:52to try and win this first contact,
09:54that contests the first duel now is against Oli McBurney.
09:56So, if he doesn't win it, that could be a problem.
09:58But actually, Chelsea have four players creating a box around the ball,
10:02which allows them to be pretty confident
10:04they should be winning this knockdown.
10:06But then I want to look out wide and look at Pedro Neto.
10:10So, in this game, I believe he was playing off the right wing,
10:12but he's obviously dropped back
10:13because we're in a set-piece scenario here.
10:15Now, Pedro Neto has entirely closed off the idea of tracking back here
10:20because he's looking the other way.
10:21His body positioning closes off any idea of him turning
10:24and recovering this flick on from Oli McBurney.
10:27So, when it's flicked on,
10:29instead of Chelsea being 2v1 toward the byline
10:33with Neto and Gusto around Ryan Giles,
10:37it's a 1v1.
10:38And Gusto is in a leg race with Ryan Giles,
10:41who shrugs him off entirely.
10:45Now, being in a 1v1 prior to being shrugged off
10:47really isn't the end of the world.
10:49You kind of trust Gusto to be able to,
10:51at the worst, really,
10:53make it a really horrific cross from Giles
10:56or let him force you into giving a corner away.
10:59But Gusto obviously gets shrugged off
11:01and it allows Giles to just boot a ball into the box.
11:04Now, this is a horrific position for Chelsea to be in
11:07because now, despite being in a 4v3
11:11in their defence versus their attack
11:12and having two support midfielders
11:14just in front of the first contact from Oli McBurney,
11:17they're now in a 3v3 inside their own penalty area.
11:21That is absolutely shambolic
11:23to get into that scenario.
11:25And it actually gets worse
11:26because Giles Hattel, I know he makes a mistake,
11:29which we're going to touch on in a second,
11:30but he's not in an easy position now
11:31because he's now trying to read a ball
11:33that's dropping straight down,
11:34which isn't always as easy as you may suspect,
11:37especially when you're right under it.
11:38And he's got Bellumi with momentum
11:41to come and contest the first duel
11:42if he does want to.
11:44Now, Bellumi doesn't even have to do that
11:46because Giles Hattel makes a mistake,
11:48misreads the bounce, it then bounces over him.
11:50And now Bellumi's got a shot on goal
11:53with almost the entire goal gaping for him
11:56in a huge opportunity for Hull City,
11:59despite them starting the move
12:00in an under-loaded attack,
12:034v3 against Chelsea's defence.
12:05And that's where I sympathise with Xabi Alonso
12:09because, yes, they've not been great in the press,
12:12but I think a lot of the problems that they are having
12:14it comes down to individuals.
12:16They've got a semi-decent structure at times,
12:18like that whole goal there
12:19was not a bad defensive structure
12:21set up by the set-piece team
12:23or whoever was involved in it.
12:24But it's like brain farts,
12:26that's what I'm going to call it,
12:27I'm going to put it down,
12:28benefit the doubt,
12:28brain farts leads
12:31to a massive chance for Hull
12:34in a position where Hull should have had zero chance
12:36to even get a shot off
12:37or think of a shot.
12:39But,
12:40and I'm going to get a little bit philosophical
12:42on you here,
12:44because
12:45a manager can have tactics,
12:46he can have structure,
12:47he can have a system,
12:49he can sort of bring patterns of play into it,
12:51but the best tactic a manager can have
12:53is
12:53the players he has at his disposal.
12:56And if your players
12:58are making bizarre decisions,
13:00then it feels like the tactics you're deploying
13:02are bizarre decisions,
13:03but sometimes it's not necessarily entirely that.
13:07So,
13:08I'm going to leave you with a question,
13:10can Chelsea actually put together
13:11a solid run of form
13:12and be pushing in that top four,
13:14in the top three,
13:15in the top two,
13:16or
13:18are JP Morgan
13:19not quite enough
13:21for this Chelsea side
13:23to really make a do-it at this season?
13:26Let me know in the comments below
13:27and we'll be back
13:28in the future
13:29with some more brilliant analysis.
13:31And thank you so much for the support
13:32on the recent videos.
13:33It really doesn't go unnoticed.