Tactical deficiencies in Chelsea which Manchester United can Exploit

DONETSK, UKRAINE – OCTOBER 23: Chelsea team group during the UEFA Champions League Group E match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea at the Donbass Arena on October 23, 2012 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

The start for Chelsea this season could not have been better domestically. In fact, this is the best ever start for Chelsea in the first eight games of a season with seven wins and a draw. Ironically, the second best start of eight games in a season was last season under Villas- Boas, which bettered all other starts under Mourinho and Ancelotti. Last year, even after having the best start ever, the season under AVB turned out to be a disaster. Learning from last year, as Chelsea fans, we must not get our hopes high so early into the season. Only one game is required to expose a team’s major weakness, if there is one.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, the team has quite a lot of deficiencies in the defense. It is very surprising, but Chelsea’s greatest strength may turn out to be their greatest weakness this season. Until the last match against Shakhtar, I’d watched every Chelsea game, keeping an eye on our defenders and holding midfielders. Although not many goals have been scored against Chelsea, there was a feeling opposing players were finding it easy to attack the Londoners. This hunch was proved right, after Shakhtar forward Fernandinho commented:

“The current Chelsea team are different from the team who won the Champions League. So many times, the offensive players didn’t come back to help the defence.

“They usually had only the four defenders and one midfielder in front of the box. It’s a different style. The team who won the Champions League were compact and concerned a lot about defending.”

Fernandinho pointed out that Chelsea have a soft centre with the midfielders not tracking back and helping out the defense. The Shakhtar forward also commented that without Petr Cech, the score would have been a lot different. Chelsea’s ‘compact’ defense this season is not an indication of good defense but an indication of how good Cech is.

Majorly, there are two areas which Man Utd can exploit.

1) The Holding Midfielders

DONETSK, UKRAINE – OCTOBER 23: Henrik Mkhitaryan (L) of Shakhtar Donetsk challenges John Obi Mikel (R) of Chelsea during the UEFA Champions League Group E match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea at the Donbass Arena on October 23, 2012 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Under Di Matteo, Chelsea have adopted the 4-2-3-1 formation, which has two holding midfielders sitting in front of the defense. One more major change from last season under RDM is the high pressing into the opposition half. Unlike under AVB, the pressing of Chelsea this season does not involve the whole defense line moving up. The high defense line was very easily punished by our opponents.

RDM has introduced high pressing by pushing up the forwards and the holding midfielders. Our defense line is relatively deep and hence there is a lot of space to exploit. Due to the holding mids moving up to win the ball, an opponent can easily roam between defense and midfield relatively unmarked. A sudden counter-attack or a good long ball can open up our defense, if the midfielders don’t track back quickly.

Even though Chelsea’s transition from defense to attack is good, the transition back to defense is a little slower.

What Chelsea wants from high pressing is that the opposition plays long and loose the ball in the process. However, if the opposition is Man Utd, the plan might work against us. With the pin-point long balls of Paul Scholes, the whole Chelsea midfield can be easily bypassed.

Wayne Rooney, who plays as a play-maker nowadays can also harm Chelsea by exploiting that ‘hole’.

If this hole between defense and midfield is not covered quickly by midfielders, United will find it really easy to play good long balls and launch a quick counter-attacking move. The holding midfielders have to work their socks off if the team has to be compact in defense. Chelsea can also remove high pressing for one game just to ensure a tighter defense.

2) Attacking full-backs

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – MAY 02: Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea celebrate

It is not bad to have full-backs who give the team an extra attacking option. Chelsea have got two very good full-backs in the form of Branislav Ivanovic and Ashley Cole. In every match this season, Ivanovic and Cole have spent most of the 90 min in the opposing half. Ivanovic is sometimes seen lurking near/inside the penalty box. Cole, due to his enormous experience, and positional awareness, doesn’t spend much time near the opposition’s penalty box, but is still playing very high.

A team having good ability of retaining possession can risk playing their full-backs high. However, if the team is prone to losing balls while attacking, it is better to have full-backs playing a little less high.

An opposition with good wingers and full-backs can exploit the space in the wings, if unmarked. Against Arsenal, we saw our London rivals frequently attacking from the wings. Arsenal attempted close to 30 crosses in the match, and failed to score only because of the absence of a good finisher and brilliant saves by Cech.

Against Tottenham, the absence of Bale ensured that our full-backs weren’t stretched much. Still, most of the attacking moves by Spurs were started from the wings by Lennon.

With hardworking wingers like Valencia and forwards like Robin van Persie, Chelsea’s full-backs will surely be put through a stern test.

Again, the full-backs can be asked to sit back a little to ensure defensive compactness.

In the end, Chelsea can either make their defense more compact for this game or continue playing the same attacking way. If it is the latter, then we are in for a goal-scoring fest today.