Chelsea FC: How the Blues direct running exposed Manchester City

Chelsea vs Manchester City: Torres’s delight

As José Mourinho jumped into the crowd following Fernando Torres’ late winner versus Manchester City on Sunday, perhaps reliving his youth as a crowd surfing teenager, my thoughts turned to the significant tactical events. Forgotten was Joe Hart’s cringe worthy blunder that gifted Chelsea victory in the dying embers of the match. Forgotten was Manuel Pellegrini’s refusal to shake hands with Chelsea’s manager. And forgotten was Mourinho’s incredible 65 game unbeaten record at Stamford Bridge. I decided to leave those particular incidents for the numerous tabloid newspapers to digest, regurgitate and re-digest.

From an aspiring tactician’s perspective, one of the most interesting aspects of Chelsea’s 2-1 victory was their Spanish enigma, Fernando Torres, deadly Sergio Agüero, and Manchester City’s decision to ignore the expansive wide zones following Pellegrini’s formation change and subsequent removal of Álvaro Negredo from the starting line-up.

Secluded yet Lethal Argentine

Sergio Agüero led the line for the visitors in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Yaya Touré positioned behind the 25-year-old Argentinian striker. David Silva roamed down the left flank and Samir Nasri attacked the right, ahead of Fernandinho and Javi García, who attempted to protect central defence. Pablo Zabaleta and Gaël Clichy provided the majority of the width for Man City, but were rarely utilised effectively.

The 4-2-3-1 is a common formation across Europe, suitable for an abundance of players with varying attributes. Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to alter his tried and trusted 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2 formation may have stemmed from Bayern Munich’s control of midfield almost four weeks ago in the Champions League. On that night, the Chilean manager strangely decided to keep two strikers up front against a Bayern side managed by possession guru Pep Guardiola. Three versus two in central midfield was only ever going to end badly, and so it proved.

José Mourinho has Chelsea playing a counter-attack oriented style. Thus removing Negredo, for García – a natural holding player, or awkward central defender – gave Manchester City an opportunity to maintain possession, while at the same time, limiting Oscar’s contribution. Yaya Touré’s desire to join attacks could have played into Chelsea’s hands if the Ivory Coast international had partnered Fernandinho.

Tactical explanation to one side, Pellegrini’s switch to 4-2-3-1 resulted in Agüero battling for limited space, pressed against Gary Cahill and John Terry. In fact, the only time Agüero ever truly ran beyond the pair into sizeable space was shortly after half-time, when he caught Petr ?ech napping at the near post to equalise.

Manchester City passed the ball well, completing 225 passes during the first-half (see above) and 398 come full-time – 85% completion. However, their insistence of penetrating throughout central zones when Chelsea retreated to their 18-yard box, simply forced Sergio Agüero to fire shots from limited angles.

The available space was down the flanks, but due to the lack of an aerial threat, and the fact that Gaël Clichy had a game to forget – the Frenchman was at fault for Chelsea’s first goal and frequently allowed Branislav Ivanovi? to beat him – their control of the match lacked a clinical edge in the final third.

Spanish Enigma & Dribbling Prowess

Enigma, paradox, conundrum? How to describe Chelsea’s Fernando Torres? The Spanish striker performed brilliantly after ballooning a shot over the bar from close range; an effort that had everyone shaking their heads in disbelief. He assisted The Blues’ first goal following a direct and purposeful run past Clichy, struck the far post with a venomous shot and capitalised on City’s defensive error to score the winning goal.

Fernando Torres may have only completed 11 passes throughout the full 90 minutes, but his overall contribution was far more significant.

The former Liverpool striker won three headers and one tackle, as well as beating his opposite man three times from a possible seven (see above) – the greatest number of attempted dribbles of any Chelsea player. In fact, when you compare the total number of attempted dribbles from both teams, the findings make for interesting viewing.

Manchester City barely attempted to run past Chelsea’s defensive line, highlighted by the infrequent and sporadic placement of icons within the image below.

Whereas Chelsea attempted to dribble past City’s defence 31 times, with 16 proving successful.

Mourinho’s strategy is based on counter-attacking, so due to the fact that Man City deployed a high defensive line with Matija Nastasi? partnering debutant Martín Demichelis in central defence, Chelsea’s tricky attackers took it in turns to gain an advantage by surging into vacant space.

Short, quick passes can be an alternative approach when utilising the counter-attack, but Chelsea are blessed with an abundance of scheming midfielders, therefore their most potent attacking strategy was to continuously harass City’s defence with direct running and angled crosses.

Credit to Sergio Agüero for cunningly leading the line against Gary Cahill and a rejuvenated John Terry – Chelsea’s best player this season with a Squawka Performance Score of 334 – however, it was Fernando Torres who grabbed the headlines with a Jekyll and Hyde performance.

Torres may never get back to his consistent best, but if he can perform at that level against other would-be rivals, shrugging off defenders like a man fuelled on a limitless supply of energy drinks, Chelsea will have finally unearthed the influential weapon that cost them £50 million.