Quick Chelsea analysis

[bakeblade]

Good stuff Bergen.

You have only to look though at the start point for that goal

View attachment 105133

And the defensive positioning being as Basham had been pulled forward to check Werner. Once the ball is with Chilwell, there's a massive channel opened up behind Basham which all evening Chelsea were stretching and playing balls into. Look at the positioning of our light-duties midfield. They are tracking no-one - and Chelsea are in attack mode, likely to play in Werner who is already mobile behind Basham. Why is Norwood pointing, and what at? If he suspects an overload and Bryan being pulled free of Mount, why is he or Fleck not covering?

Next slide, please ...

View attachment 105135

Now Egan sees Basham is done for pace and moves forward, leaving Giroud for Bryan, opening up a fucking great hole into which Mount is ready to receive. Lowe is still conscious of James behind him, but moves to cover because Fleck and Norwood are basically spectating. They've started to run but are looking at the developing challenges of Basham and Egan on Werner, not the real danger of Mount being left unmarked to shoot on goal. It's really poor vision.

Next slide please ...

View attachment 105137
Both Basham and Egan have been drawn to Werner, Bryan has tracked Giroud, Lowe - late - sees the imminent danger and sprints across and Norwood and Fleck are absolutely nowhere to be seen. Mount can't believe he's got the time and space to run onto a straight ground pass and clip it past Ramsdale into the bottom corner.

It's just poor footballing vision, and it's the stuff Chelsea expose you for and punish you for. Two midfielders in the vicinity who could have - should have - made a world of difference there and stopped Mount getting a clean strike on that ball at least.

pommpey

Nice one Professor Whitty. Straight after Norwood does his pointing act, Fleck does exactly the same. Very poor from both of them and I'm sure it's been picked up by the coaching staff.

 

[bakeblade]

Four in midfield. It's clear that Lundstram - Norwood - Fleck are very, very vulnerable, especially when the ball is past their line.

We have the bandwidth to play

-------------------------------------------Ramsdale----------------------------------------

----Baldock-----------------Basham<------(or Jags)-------->Egan------Bryan/Stevens--

---Bogle------------------Lundstram------------Norwood/Fleck------------Osborn/Fleck

-------------------Sharp/McBurnie/Burke/McGoldrick/Brewster/Mousset----------------
(any combination)

if all are fit. Yeah, it's 'boring 4-4-2' but that formation is damned effective and gives the numbers in midfield to not be outpassed or outthought, especially if Wilder insists like he does that we maintain a rigid shape at all times, even when playing against more adaptive and dynamic formations. It is all about retaining possession and transiting from defence into attack fluidly, not booting it long to McBunie

pommpey

That's the formation I've been suggesting for a while now

 

[Balham Blade]

Pretty much this... Once teams realized that shutting down our overlapping CB's wasnt the key, but instead to put pressure on our central midfielders (eg Norwood), things started to come unstuck fast.

It's not just that though. For me, the key reason Norwood helped our play so much in 2018/19 was that he was able to play the ball into the path of the advancing wingbacks, allowing them to run into the ball and keep our forward momentum. The wide centre halves could then get forward too. It's something Coutts did to great effect in the 3-5-2 up until his leg break and it's something we really, really missed. Lundstram has a good passing range but he's a to-feet passer.

Once sides started pinning the wingbacks back, Norwood lost his favoured pass and in turn that means he's taking additional touches: not his game at all. He's got the turning circle of a small boat and really struggles under pressure.

If the wingbacks are being pinned on then somehow,we need to move the focus of our play away from the wings to give the players a chance of beating the press. With Egan at centre half that option is limited as he's a stopper rather than a ball playing CB.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Not wanting to defend Norwood and Fleck too much on this one, but I wonder whether they’re playing to instruction? That is, have CWAK told them to stay ‘free’ on the edge to pick up a half clearance and start a counter attack? It happens so frequently that I can’t believe the management would let them get away with it. In some cases, it certainly looks as though Norwood and Fleck are doing their best not to catch up.

If that is the case, surely it would be better for just one of them to hang outside, and for the other to get in the thick of it, picking someone up, blocking a shot etc. That’s what tended to happen last season. Something has changed - either tactically or through sloppiness.

For this game I think they were given license to push higher up and a consequence of that is that they are less able/expected to track back.

Man marking can work well if you have very focused and individually strong/athletic defenders, but there is less of a rescue plan when one player slips up.

In a normal game I think Basham would have stayed put, left Werner to the midfielders, or at the very least sprinted back in position, rather than hesitating/staying with Werner for a second. But I think we wanted to give the midfielders a little less work load, so Basham and Bryan were very eager to push up from their positions.

We've looked passive in a few games this season. A lot of teams have had one central striker and two wide men hugging the touchlines, causing us to have a back five not doing very much. This has caused our poor sods in midfield to chase shadows in the middle of the park. Wilder and Knill have been trying to address this, without looking at a formation change, and I think Sunday's tactics was an interesting effort, a quite clever idea.

If Basham had gone awol in a more zonal defending set up, this is what the rest of defence should have done, collectively closing the gap by pushing over:


No real space for Werner to run into if we'd done that.

But we had a man marking focus and Egan is focusing on his man Giroud; Bryan on Mount; Lowe on James. Fleck and Norwood are signalling that they are leaving Giroud and Mount for them to handle. But collectively we're not realising the danger of Werner's run, and that is a vulnerability of man marking. The rescue system is not as good.

Personally I wouldn't be so harsh on individual players for this goal. Our tactical tweak of the day played a big part and some top class players took advantage.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I don't analyse what we've done after the match and couldn't ever dream of going into the detail that someone like Bergen Blade does, it's good stuff.

One thing I do notice though is that when they press us we absolutely shit our pants and give them the ball back. When we press them they just play the ball around us.

This wasn't happening last season, I can recall a good few occasions where we pressed, won the ball and turned the possession into a chance or goal. We just don't do anything with the same intensity anymore.

When I watched the game I saw Burke nearly get to the ball about 50 times with a desperate 5 yard sprint as he got close and McB ambling about between defenders, looking busy but not actually achieving much.

I always bang on about Leeds and I've probably seen a combined 150 minutes of their games this season (that includes the 90+ against us), but they seem to press with intensity that we could only dream of this season. Why can't we do it anymore? The answer isn't that we've been sussed out either.

Leeds also play a man marking system and the way they run and press is impressive. They've had some time to perfect it though and like us last season they do benefit from the momentum and enthusiasm that comes from a first season back, as well as an unknown and quite unusual style. They're doing it well, but they may need better players to keep it up next season.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Bergen Blade Top analysis, thank you. Have you noticed recently a slight change in our midfield three. Whereas previously it's been fairly set in having Fleck and Lundstram either side of Norwood at the base, it's felt more recently that Lundstram has occasionally dropped into the middle and stayed there for a couple of passages of play. It's not something I've been able to re-watch but it's something I've noticed in the past couple of games, and I wondered if it was an attempt to get someone more athletic in the middle at times. Or it could just be Lundstram and Norwood being on a slightly better wavelength as to covering for each other.

Yes I have noticed that and wondered the same. As it's just lasted for short spells I think I'm leaning towards it being a case of filling in or tracking a run, then staying in that position until the danger is over.

 

[pommpey]

If you look at the distance covered by the three of them (Norwood, Fleck and Mount) in those Pommpey photos, Norwood covers the most ground.

But it's ineffective, isn't it? Surely he, and Fleck can see Mount in their peripheral vision as a likely recipient of a pass. He moves into a hole with no United players in it. One of them would have made a world of difference to the outcome.

I can get it if the whole back line and midfield were swamped, like they have been sometimes this season and simply clinging on. But they weren't. And if anyone wants to simplify it further, Fleck and Norwood might get away with that in the Championship, but not in the Premiership.

pommpey