Tactical Analysis: Chelsea 2-0 Everton

Blues beat Everton at the Bridge again.

Thread Chelsea goal kicks/Everton high press:

Starting with Chelsea's build up from goal kicks, we saw the usual 4-2-4 set up with Fernandez dropping alongside James as the pivot.

Everton pressed with aggressively with a -1 here, and the deficit came down the right side, where Grealish split the Chelsea right-back (Gusto) and right center-back (Fofana) - purple zone in image 1.

This allowed Everton to have a +1 against Chelsea's two forwards (Pedro and Palmer).

Tactical Analysis: Chelsea 1-3 Brighton

Despite a solid start to the match, Chelsea's second half implosion made it a hattrick of winless Premier League games. Let's analyse the tactics that shaped the result. Starting with Chelsea's build up and Brighton's high press:

Without a creative midfielder in the side, Maresca used a 4-3-3 build up shape rather than the usual 4-2-4. Against this, Brighton's first line went man-man, but the second line kept a -1. Meaning, two of Brighton's central midfielders (CMs), Baleba and Ayari, were against three Chelsea CMs (Fernandez, Santos, and Caicedo).

This enabled Brighton to keep a +1 at the back to deal with Pedro, who likes dropping into midfield, as his former teammates would know.

Tactical Analysis: Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City

First day of the WSL season and the reigning champions have started with another win. In this thread, I will analyse and break down the tactical details that shaped the game.

Let's dive in. Since Chelsea dominated possession in the first half, let's begin with their on-ball system.

As pointed out previously, Bompastor began evolving Chelsea's system late last season (as shown in the last image vs. Liverpool in the previous season). This shift meant that Chelsea were attacking with wingbacks and a box midfield - a common tactic that many managers use.

Against City's out-of-possession (OOP) structure, I thought the two Chelsea attacking midfielders (Hamano and Kaptein) caused the biggest problems.

Tactical Analysis: Chelsea 2-0 Fulham

Chelsea weren't at their best in the first half but still managed to go a goal up. Second half adjustments shifted the tie's momentum before sealing the result from the spot.

In this thread, I will analyse the tactics that shaped Chelsea's 2-0 win over Fulham.

Let's dive in. One of the main themes of the first half was Chelsea's inability to control the match with the ball. They struggled to build rhythm and momentum. So, let's start with Chelsea in-possession tactics and what Fulham did well off the ball.

Starting from goal kicks, Maresca instructed the team to have a 4-2-4 shape with Fernandez dropping beside Caicedo.

Fulham pressed with a deficit in their frontline so that they could have a +1 at the back.

Exploring how Enzo Maresca could set Chelsea up to deal with Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain

Preview Thread With PSG dismantling Real Madrid in the CWC semis yesterday, I’ve been thinking about what Chelsea can do to stop them. The main focus is going to be on how Maresca could potential set up from an out-of-possession perspective.

I will also touch on some in-possession points at the end, but I really want to focus on the defensive side of the game because of how dangerous PSG are.

Tactical Analysis: Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea

Joao Pedro's Stunners Send Chelsea to the Club World Cup Final

Chelsea's Club World Cup campaign continued on Tuesday as they faced Fluminense in the semi-final. In this thread, I will comprehensively analyze the tactical elements of the game and break down the key moments that shaped the result.

Before we explore the tactical side of the match, something worth mentioning was the weather.

In the New Jersey heat, both teams clearly dropped their intensity to conserve energy. But I think the fact that Chelsea controlling possession helped as they dictated the tempo and quite simply you would use less energy when having the ball.

Contrastingly, it’s harder to defend for long periods in that heat. Even though Fluminense were defending passively, as we’ll later explore, it still requires them to be alert to closing distances and maintain a compact shape, which they didn’t.

Anyway, let's dive into the tactical details now.

Something I want to appreciate Maresca for is his tactical aggressiveness. Chelsea committed to attack aggressively. The set up apart from the 3-1-6 included a very aggressive rest defense.

The 3-1 base would step up to suffocate Fluminense to pin them deep and have a compact counter-press structure ready once there was a turnover.

Furthermore, the ball-sided wide center-back (Chalobah/Cucurella) had the license to push forward and support the winger and attacking midfielder. Caicedo also pushed up to offer a passing angle.

I wanted to point this out because although Maresca gets categorized as a coach who wants control, which is true, it shouldn't be misunderstood for absolute conservatism.

Tactical Analysis: Flamengo 3-1 Chelsea

Lead Lost Amid Flamengo’s Second-Half Push After a comfortable opening match to the Club World Cup against Los Angeles FC where Chelsea won 2-0, Maresca’s team faced an energetic Flamengo team.

Despite Chelsea taking the lead in the first half, the tie was really competitive. A more resurgent and energetic Flamengo turned things around in the second half – ending the match with a compelling 3-1 score line whilst Chelsea looked fatigue with a reckless red card doing them no favours either.

In this thread, I’m going to tactically break down the match and analyse what went wrong.

Let’s dive in.

Currently rewatching the City-Bournemouth game to have a proper look at how Guardiola established control in the first half.

What stands out in the opening minutes is how City's in-possession structure caused Iraola's off-ball system issues.

Let's have a look.


Iraola wanted his frontline pressers to apply pressure on City. However, with Kovacic dropping deep and offering the center-backs a passing option, there was an initial overload (green). Often, City could find Kovacic free as it was fairly simple as the passing angle would open up.

Once this zone was bypassed, City could then enter the midfield zone (yellow) whilst still having a man surplus considering Kovacic would push up.

From Bournemouth's perspective, there were numerous difficulties:

1. Frontline pressers were overloaded.
2. Bournemouth's midfielders found it difficult to track Gundogan and Silva (playing as CMs with Kovacic) as they'd pull out really wide. So, a wide overload could be created if they didn't follow.
3. The wingers were pinned by City's fullbacks. Other times they would pick up on the wide City central midfielders but then their fluid movement was hard to track + it'd leave the fullbacks in a lot of space.

I'm rewatching the UCL semis this weekend. Currently on the Arsenal-PSG game and something that I noticed, which hasn't been discussed enough is the trouble that PSG's midfield caused.

There's understandably a lot of focus on what Dembele's positioning did. It allowed for the line-breaking pass since he caused a midfield overload. That's, of course, important.

However, I felt like PSG's midfield facilitates Dembele to find space, in a way. I noticed that in the opening minutes of the game with Vitinha stirring the most trouble in build-up whilst Ruiz and Neves cause confusion slightly higher up the field.

Let's have a look.
In the opening few minutes, we can see that Vitinha is willing to drop into the backline to assist with build-up. Arsenal tried to press aggressively here with Saka pressing Vitinha, and elsewhere, across the pitch, the ideal from Arteta was to go man-for-man.

What I'd like to point out here is that when Saka presses Vitinha in this position, it makes Arsenal's life a bit easier in midfield as Merino and Rice can keep tabs on Neves and Ruiz.

Meanwhile, down the left, Martinelli just needs to watch Hakimi. And on the right, Timber is marking Mendes.

In the below sequence, Arsenal cause a turnover after forcing PSG long.

There's something that I noticed with the distances the Barcelona players maintain depending on the location of the ball. I found it very interesting as I saw them implement this consistently in the game. Think it's a very smart detail by Flick.

Let's have a look.
Many of you may know the basic structures on and off the ball that Barcelona and Inter Milan adopted last night.

Flick uses a 3-2-5 structure with lots of movement. So, not a fixed shape as you'll know if you've watched the game. But anyway, that's not of importance.

Meanwhile, Inter sit deep in a 5-3-2 low-block.

I just wanted to highlight a play from the Copenhagen-Chelsea game that I liked. It's a very minor detail in the grand scheme of the match but I wonder why more center-backs don't do it. Well, it is a riskier approach but can be quite effective.
In the second half, Chelsea were more aggressive without the ball. So, when Kevin Diks, the Copenhagen center-back receives the ball here, you can see that George is ready to press him whilst he's short of free players in the center.

He makes the conservative and sensible pass of playing it to the left center-back.

On my initial view of Real Madrid's opening goal last night, I thought the left-back, Galan, was at fault. However, on another look, it's an issue of the defensive line.

Atletico's backline should take responsibility here.

I'll explain why. It's pretty simple.

Atletico's overriding defensive principles were straightforward.

Simeone wanted his side to defend in a passive but very compact mid-block. The set up was a 4-4-2 shape but this could morph into a back 5 if Real's midfielders/fullbacks joined the frontline.

One of Bayer Leverkusen's strengths is their out-of-possession work. The set-up and execution from Xabi Alonso's side are top.

Let's take a look at how it helped against Eintracht Frankfurt last night.

Short thread

In Frankfurt's defensive third, they aggressively pressed man-to-man. Didn't allow Frankfurt to build through short passes. They were really effective on the night. Even jumped on the keeper whilst maintaining the shadow cover on the center-back.

There's a reason Sebastian Hoeneß is highly regarded - he uses interesting tactical and coaching ideas.

Here's an example with how Stuttgart built out from the back against Bayern Munich.
In the 2nd minute of the match, I found it so interesting the way Stuttgart wanted to build up.

As you can see, they've got a 3-2-1-5 shape. You may be wondering that this is an odd shape to build up.

This is because the Stuttgart backline has three midfielders to pass to, who are all clogged up in the middle with no short option out wide.

REAL MADRID 3:1 MANCHESTER CITY

First Half Tactical Analysis & Match Report

Manchester City were dazzled by the brilliance of Real Madrid, whose star-studded display swept them out of the Champions League, as the reigning champions marched confidently toward retaining their crown.

Champions League Analysis Thread The opening few seconds of the match revealed the strategy of both sides in the middle third.

Manchester City altered their usual shape and decided to settle with four lines of attack. A 2-4-2-2 in-possession structure against Real Madrid's usual narrow 4-4-2 mid-block.

BRIGHTON 3:0 CHELSEA

Tactical Analysis & Match Report

Chelsea suffer back-to-back defeats against Brighton, and with their closest rivals picking up wins over the weekend, Enzo Maresca’s side drops to sixth place, adding to the challenge of securing a Champions League spot.

Thread Chelsea's away form since drawing 0-0 to Everton at Goodison Park has been immensely underwhelming. Failing to pick up wins on the road, the Blues have lost three and drew a game since.

Maresca was hoping to turn that around against Brighton in the rematch. However, the result proved to be even more disheartening than their 2-1 defeat less than a week prior.

In this match, I will analyse the match in-depth and break down the tactical elements of the game.

Let's dive in.

CHELSEA 2:1 WEST HAM UNITED

Tactica Analysis & Match Report

Chelsea scraped a win in a scrappy fight, climbing back into the top four as the Premier League heats up.

Analysis Thread Chelsea faced West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on Monday night in a crucial fixture as the Blues looked to bounce back after a one-sided loss to Manchester City last weekend.

With that defeat pushing them out of the top four, Chelsea had an opportunity to get right back in as City had humbly lost 5-1 to Arsenal on Sunday night.

So, a victory against Potter, the former Chelsea manager, would push Maresca's side two points clear off City and Newcastle.

In this thread, we will dissect the tactical talking points of the match whilst analyzing the broader performance.

Let's dive in.

CHELSEA 1:0 ARSENAL

Tactical Analysis & Match Report

Sonia Bompastor’s relentless juggernaut marches on, conquering yet another rival to further solidify their dominance and claim a historic sixth consecutive Super League title.

Analysis Thread The excitement in the Chelsea Women's camp is high. Off the field, they are securing top-tier player transfers to assist their ambitious goals of retaining the Super League title (again) whilst strengthening their first for a first Champions League trophy.

Nevertheless, their focus on the field has remained consistent as they delivered another victory over close rivals, Arsenal, with a 1-0 win on Sunday.

In this thread, I will comprehensively analyse the match with a tactical lens and explore various talking points.

Let's dive in.

CRYSTAL PALACE 1:1 CHELSEA

Tactical Analysis & Match Report

Chelsea continue to rekindle flashes of their previous form; however, their winless run persists following a frustrating 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace.

Thread Enzo Maresca's Chelsea hoped to end their winless run at Selhurst Park last night. Although they started the match brightly, Crystal Palace grew into the game before hurting the visitors late in the game to snatch a point.

In this thread, I will analyse the match in detail to discover all the tactical nuances.

Let's dive in.

IPSWICH TOWN 2:0 CHELSEA

Tactical Analysis & Match Report

Chelsea's momentum comes to a screeching halt as they suffer back-to-back defeats, the latest setback unfolding on their visit to Ipswich Town.

Analysis thread After suffering a defeat against Fulham less than a week ago, Chelsea hoped to bounce back immediately. However, Ipswich Town's valiant performance earned them their first home league win of the Premier League campaign as they defeated the west Londoners.

In this thread, I will comprehensively evaluate the game's tactical nuances and other talking points.

Let's dive in.