Thread by @Zzychels

Newcastle v Chelsea

Defensive horror show😬

Tactical review

Thread

Chelsea lined up in their usual formation having Badashille back and Ugo replacing Caicedo cause of the late return from International duty. Newcastle used their usual 433 with Miley coming in for an injured Joe Wilock

The started to be a high-intensity game as promised, both teams made it end to end early, Chelsea started early with more pressing intensity with our regular 442 press with Gallagher initially on Gumiaires while Jackson going to press the CBs,

Newcastle also sought to press us high as predicted as Isak pressed the CBs, Joelinton, and Miley were on our pivot, while Almiron and Gordon stayed on the FBs, so the space was more central if you play out of it.

When it fell off after the first 15 minutes, it became more of a 442 midblock, The annoying thing here is it was easier for Newcastle to play through as they just used switches to bypass the press which reduced in intensity as time went by

The "selective" press was as we have employed in the big games this season, but NEW used that to capitalize on our narrow defensive shape and always had their out ball as their players on out wide(as those teams have) but it was different.

NEW maintained "maximum width" a lot of the time and with the work rate of Sterling they took advantage of the space-time and time again, with us, the space is always in the wide areas, and NEW took advantage cause we couldn't defend the resulting crosses,

in previous games(Arsenal, City, Spurs) we also allowed 1v1's in wide areas but our FBs were comfortable dealing with dribbling wingers NEW exploited 2 things different from that

Overloads

They made the FBs confused about who to deal with and if the winger on that side doesn't help, they are overwhelmed, NEW's plan was to overload the wide areas and flood the box for crosses. We failed to stop the overload

They use the wide areas to put balls in especially when we are really bad at defending them, our wingers could have done more to cover the FBs, esp Sterling on Cucurella's side, NEW were first to the 2nd and 3rd balls which is what Poch was talking about

Width for Crosses

City, Arsenal & Spurs dont cross often, when City did they were able to find space for the cross for Akanji's goal, Newcastle's was a different threat, something similar to Brentford which they also capitalized on.

As for the 2nd goal, NEW took it short and worked it out to the left, which took out Reece and Ugochukwu(height) who were set to defend the first ball, the cross wasn't stopped and we conceded from a cross again, which is becoming alarming

CHE's build-up shape was the same 4-2 we've used for most of the season, while it was a 3 2 in settled possession with a number of rotations to either put Ugo in the middle of the back 3, James in the back 3, or Cucurella on the left, or when Cucu comes into midfield, 2-3 shape,

It was interesting as we used them to play out of Newcastle's press a number of times, this move starts with Cucurella as the 3rd Cb and transitions to Ugo as the CCB, passing move frees Cucurella and we get Gallagher free within the lines

The build-up and the way we used short passes to come out of pressure was the only thing you could say was anything remotely close to a positive takeaway from the game.

After the goal, Poch changed Gallagher and Palmer's positioning why? Because we needed more control and he wasn't getting on the ball as much, Gallagher could help deal with the overloads in midfield and out wide, since we defend in a narrow 442.

That change only meant Palmer went to the LHS and Gallagher to the RHS in possession it helped stop crosses in play but Newcastle still had their set-piece threats and capitalized

We got into good very good 2v2, and 5v4 moments but we couldn't take real advantage of them, we tried to do too much too soon with them(more issues regarding calming down games), but a sterling one did lead to the freekick goal🌚...

Newcastle got back very quickly to increase the number of defenders on those even though they initially got bypassed, so it was hard to fully capitalize unless we were decisive. unreal work rate

It also applied for settled possession periods, as we lost possession almost immediately, through unnecessary quick actions, rushing play, and being too direct. We hardly had sustained periods of possession and sustained attacks throughout the game

Then at times when the one-time pass was on, we didn't release the ball on time or make the right decisions.. Palmer and Gallagher(Our 2 half-space operators), particularly had an off-day in that regard

We then started to lose our heads when Newcastle players got to us, started when Joelinton clotheslined James in the first half, cheap fouls, giving Newcastle freekicks, and yellows for dissent.

Then after Newcastle's 2nd goal, a game which was even going into half time but was never really under either team's control spiralled out of control in seconds after the restart, Game Over

James's red card and the 4th goal were also very avoidable, Chelsea lost the game from a lot of immature moments, from getting easily rattled by the Newcastle players and letting it get to their emotions, and tactically,

Poch not being on the touchline clearly had an effect on the team's lack of ability to keep a cool head in the heat of the game. Newcastle's constant use of long balls unsettled us a lot. we arent still comfortable dealing with them, We dealt with the the long, indirect freekicks

But when Newcastle worked it short for crosses we struggled, we need a solution for that as City and Newcastle scored with short-worked freekicks now, Brentford scored with a worked long throw-in. and we need to stop being too direct,

an issue with such a young team in their process is a lack of consistency in doing what is working, especially when there is adversity. We weren't against Mancity and had spells of sustained possession, which wasn't the case here,

There's lots of work to do with so many promising things we've seen in previous games it was the worst Chelsea performance of the season easily. which the team will have to prove is a one-off.

End of Thread,

Likes, Reposts, comments are duly appreciated

What was the cause of the loss against Newcastle in your opinion?

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