Jose Mourinho's plan B : How the 3-5-2 is organised

NORWICH, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 06: Jose Mourinho, manager of Chelsea looks on during the Barclays Premier League match between Norwich City and Chelsea at Carrow Road on October 6, 2013 in Norwich, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The last time Jose Mourinho was at Chelsea FC he employed a 4-3-3 with Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba as the ‘heroes’ of the team, and although he did say that he prefers the 4-2-3-1 now, a lot of people believed that he would retain the 4-3-3 as a 2nd formation during his second homecoming.

Although its pretty certain that Mourinho will always roll out a 4-2-3-1 under normal circumstances, he does not hesitate to switch to a 3 man defense line when the game is not going his way. So far, we have seen Chelsea switch to a 3 man defense three times. after 69 minutes at Goodison park, after 64′ at the bridge against Cardiff and after 75′ at Carrow road. So how does he go about this transformation? Its simple, the man who allows this to happen is one Branislav Ivanovic.The Siberian is firmly first choice right back for Mourinho, and its arguable that his best position is somewhere in between right back and center back anyway. This means that the manager can withdraw his left back from the game without disturbing the overall balance of his defense by much.

Removing Ashley Cole for an attacking player (probably a striker, but sometimes an attacking midfielder too if he has 2 potential strikers already on the pitch) allows Mourinho to have an extra player in midfield and try to pry open the opposition defense. At Goodison park it did not pay off as Everton managed to shut out the Londoners effectively enough, and yet the game was a lot more open for Chelsea once they switched to a 3 man back line. What a 5 man midfield with 2 strikers does is it allows Jose to dictate the game according to his wishes from the touchline by creating overloads whenever and wherever necessary against weaker opposition. It allows the more technical players to run at and around defenders creating space for each other to exploit with Lampard and Ramires anchoring the midfield. The system bore fruit against Norwich spectacularly.

So is there a negative effect of this switch? Obviously there is. When you play with just 3 pure defenders you are inviting the opposition to attack the spaces that are invariably left just behind the midfield. This gives the opposition more of a chance to threaten Petr Cech‘s goal.Here, the work rate that is valued so much by the manager comes into play.

The wide players are required to track back and help out which means that Chelsea lose the advantage of the overload, at least temporarily. And yet where this could be a big disadvantage, Mourinho has shown why he is one of the best in the business by turning the proverbial double edged sword into a weapon that his team are able to exploit better than the opposition.The answer that he has seem to come up with is simple : chaos.

Due to the type of players he has at his disposal in Schurrle, Hazard, Mata, Oscar and Willian, Mourinho does not need to have a structured midfield. The coach’s methods have instilled a visibly obvious need and willingness to press the opposition in his players and the chaos only helps. Also all of his more technical players can thrive on chaos in the midfield. In fact players like Mata and Hazard rely on making the defenders second guess their decisions to create scoring opportunities even under normal circumstances.

The system isn’t perfect by any means, no system is truly perfect. But it is one that is brutally effective at the very least. By drawing the midfielders and defenders into trying to attack the spaces in front of Chelsea’s defense, they create space for themselves to try and push into the opposition’s box and get the goal they are looking for. With Newcastle United up next, Mourinho will surely be rolling out a 4-2-3-1 expecting nothing less than 3 points, but do not be surprised to see him pull Cole off if the game isn’t going favorably for the blues.