Bayern’s build up play was superb against us on Wednesday but I think there’s an area we could’ve improved on defensively, Chelsea tried to keep a +1 at the back whilst giving Bayern a +1 in their build up
(Screenshots from @Tactx_ whose video I’ll link at the end of the thread)
Bayern would look to constantly rotate players, mainly with Kimmich, Gnabry & Kane into deeper areas whilst others could look to attack space higher up which made it difficult for Chelsea players to decide on who to track
You can find more on this on the linked video at the end
But I think Chelsea could’ve done better when it came to recognising when the free player was going to be found & when to jump out to deny space
In this example Palmer leaves Laimer to press a centre back, Gusto looks ready to jump onto Laimer to deny time & space
The problem is Gnabry has moved wider on the left & the defence hasn’t shuffled across so Chalobah can’t leave Diaz to press
This leads Laimer having time & space and a few seconds later he’s found running in behind our defence
Ideally Caicedo would move to the position marked so Chalobah could be ready to step onto Gnabry once Gusto jumps
Palmer was clearly tasked to make those jumps onto their centre backs but if one player goes then everyone has to go
Similar issue here, Upamecano is the spare man here so Bayern will try to find him, this situation is a lot more difficult for Chelsea though, why? Well ask yourself who should press Upamecano?
No +1 in the backline this time, there’s two people on Laimer
Just prior to this Chelsea did have a +1 in the backline but Bayern try to find Laimer, James should probably be the one to press him but Gusto jumps out instead
Perhaps James should then drop into defence to compensate but everything happens so quickly
Ofc that shows how effective Bayern’s build up was, Palmer has been told to press a centre back so Gusto can then step up & go man to man
1st screenshots, Gusto should & wants to jump but can’t with others not covering
2nd screenshots, he probably shouldn’t jump but does
I do wonder if missing Colwill has a big impact here as well, someone who leads the backline & can see where the free player is so they can instruct players on when to jump & when to stay
And if you want to see more on how Bayern’s build up worked & the overall analysis of the game then you can check @Tactx_ video that I mentioned here
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