The Problem With Chelsea's Tactics Nobody's Talking About
The recent Chelsea against Crystal Palace game was remarkable for Mauricio Pochettino's side breaking the Premier League record for the number of passes made without having a single shot on goal.
So how does a team find a teammate over 400 times, without creating a single chance in the process? Adam Clery explains that the problem is in their use (or misuse) of Enzo Fernandez.
So how does a team find a teammate over 400 times, without creating a single chance in the process? Adam Clery explains that the problem is in their use (or misuse) of Enzo Fernandez.
Transcript
00:00 *ding*
00:02 Alright, so just to start, how the hell does a professional football team wind up making 425 passes
00:07 and not a single one leads them to getting a shot away?
00:10 Well, the very simple answer is that Crystal Palace worked out Chelsea's Achilles heel
00:15 and played a very, very clever tactic designed to exploit it called
00:19 "just being a little bit organised".
00:21 And as a result, in that first half especially, Chelsea had so much of the ball.
00:26 This is every single one of those 420 odd passes.
00:30 And you will just see virtually none of them end up in the box.
00:34 Like, I know this is a total mess and will probably look completely impenetrable,
00:37 but if we just look at the amount of times they get the ball around Crystal Palace's box
00:42 and then can't find a way in, I think it ends up in there like three times in that entire half.
00:47 And I can tell you, without even going to check,
00:49 this one here from Malagusto is back is to goal and it comes straight back out.
00:54 So it doesn't even make a dangerous situation.
00:56 Follow it into this space here.
00:57 It's still busy because it's 45 minutes worth of football,
01:00 but you can start to see gaps opening up and how few times the ball ends up here as well.
01:05 It started like more or less straight from the kickoff as well.
01:08 Like Palace have the ball, but Chelsea get it back within about 20 seconds.
01:11 And then from there, they have an unbroken sequence of, I think, 34 passes,
01:16 only five of which actually travel any distance forward.
01:20 I actually sat and counted these, right?
01:21 So out of those 34 passes in this sequence, Petrovic has one,
01:24 Chilwell has two, Silva has three,
01:26 Desarzee has eight and Gusto has five.
01:29 And obviously they're the defenders, they've got the most going on ahead of them.
01:32 They managed to pass the ball forward six times.
01:35 But then when they do pass the ball forwards, absolutely nothing happens.
01:38 Like Gallagher touches it once, can't do anything with it.
01:40 Maduike touches it three times, has to go backwards.
01:43 Caicedo gets it three times, can go sideways at best.
01:46 Nicholas Jackson does not touch it once.
01:49 Cole Palmer does not touch it once.
01:51 But the worst part of this by a million miles is Enzo Fernandez.
01:55 He gets that ball seven times in this sequence
01:59 and cannot move it further up the field even once.
02:02 Now, just to be totally clear here, all right, Enzo Fernandez is not the problem.
02:06 He is one of Chelsea's best players.
02:09 Other sides could be building title-winning teams around a player of his ability,
02:13 but he does best typify what is going wrong here.
02:17 If we just clear all this out and just leave Fernandez's passes in that first half,
02:22 they paint such a picture.
02:24 Like, just take a second to yourself.
02:26 Count how many of these you can see going forward into dangerous attacking areas.
02:31 Certainly none of them are going into the box
02:33 and all the ones where he's personally around it seem to be sideways or backwards.
02:36 But wait a minute, hang on.
02:38 There's two over this side, both in the 29th minute,
02:41 both to Conor Gallagher that are in fairly decent positions.
02:44 So what happened here?
02:46 Well, the first is him simply recovering a loose ball with his head.
02:49 Not really a chance created there.
02:50 And the second is him rolling it back to Gallagher
02:53 when he can't figure out how to get through this.
02:55 Not even that rigidly disciplined low block.
02:58 Oh, well, you might say at least they are retaining the ball in that area at the very least
03:02 and not losing it, except they then do promptly lose it
03:05 because they just sling it into the box
03:07 and then Crystal Palace go up to the other end and score.
03:09 But again, cannot stress this enough.
03:11 Enzo Fernandez is not the disease.
03:14 Enzo Fernandez is the symptom for some reason.
03:17 And I mean, you would suspect it's because he's Chelsea's best passer of a ball.
03:21 Mauricio Pochettino has decided he wants Enzo Fernandez
03:24 to play further up than he was playing last season.
03:27 And if we overlay his heat map from this game,
03:29 it's fairly typical of how he gets about all season.
03:31 He will sort of drop into his own half,
03:33 especially on this side next to Caicedo when they need to get on the ball
03:37 and begin to build up.
03:38 But when they do move up the pitch,
03:39 he really does try and stick to this sort of left-hand channel
03:43 where he can get on the ball and be creative.
03:45 And again, as we said, he's Chelsea's best passer of the ball.
03:48 He's probably the most technically proficient player.
03:50 You do probably want him in that space when you've got a forward line
03:53 made up of players who make good off the ball runs.
03:56 Nicholas Jackson is talented, but undoubtedly needs service.
04:00 Cole Palmer's brilliant at finding space where there doesn't appear to be.
04:04 Ennie Raheem Sterling made an entire career off arriving late
04:07 at the exact right moment at the back post to finish off chances.
04:10 You get a player in that sort of attacking number 10 position,
04:14 you can make things happen.
04:16 But the issue for Chelsea is that Enzo Fernandes does not play in that number 10 position.
04:21 He plays in the double pivot of a 4-2-3-1.
04:24 Conor Gallagher plays in that attacking number 10 position for Chelsea
04:28 because they need somebody with his energy, with his work rate,
04:31 with his reading of the game who can lead their press for them.
04:34 And I know he does divide opinion, Conor Gallagher,
04:36 but he is at that specific job, fantastic.
04:40 Like these are his defensive numbers this season compared to like midfielders
04:43 and attacking midfielders.
04:45 He's arguably the best one in the Premier League at hounding down the opposition,
04:49 winning the ball back, making interceptions.
04:51 That's a really key part of how Chelsea play.
04:54 Look, think about it this way, right?
04:55 Every single team has two tactics, right?
04:58 They've got on the ball tactics, what they do when they've got possession,
05:01 and off the ball tactics, what they do when they don't have possession.
05:04 For Chelsea's off the ball tactics to work,
05:06 they need a player like Conor Gallagher in that attacking number 10 position.
05:10 He makes all that stuff work.
05:12 But then for their on the ball tactics,
05:14 they need a player like Enzo Fernandez in that position.
05:17 You need his particular skill set to make chances.
05:20 And so that's how you wind up having something like 425 successful passes in a game
05:26 without registering a single shot as a result.
05:28 Because when you're off the ball tactics and you're on the ball tactics
05:31 or in such conflict, as a team,
05:34 you just don't really know what the f*** to do.
05:38 But then you take those two little facts and you actually sit and watch Chelsea.
05:42 And what becomes painfully apparent is that they need Conor Gallagher to lead their press.
05:48 But as a team, they don't press particularly well.
05:50 And they need Enzo Fernandez to be their primary chance creator.
05:55 But Enzo Fernandez is not a particularly good chance creator.
05:59 Like, come on, sing it with me, Chelsea fans.
06:01 You know the words.
06:01 Here are Conor Gallagher's numbers again for defending from the front.
06:05 And here is how Chelsea rank against other teams in the league
06:08 for defensive actions in the final third.
06:10 He's really good at doing that.
06:12 But as a team, they are bang average.
06:15 And then for your second verse,
06:16 here's a little comparison between Enzo Fernandez's touches of the ball
06:19 in different parts of the pitch from last season to this season.
06:22 You can definitely see there's a conscious effort being made there
06:25 to get him on the ball further up the pitch and use him less in the buildup phase.
06:29 And now here's a similar comparison between his chance creation numbers
06:33 from last season to this season.
06:34 They're absolutely no better.
06:36 And if anything, they've gone down.
06:38 It's enough to drive you absolutely insane.
06:43 Anyway, sorry, also did see this screen grab during the rounds on Twitter last night.
06:47 This is right after Crystal Palace have scored their goal.
06:50 And you can just sort of see the problem this creates.
06:52 Because a 4-2-3-1 should give you loads of possession.
06:56 You should be able to build up through the lines nice and easily.
06:58 You should be compact. You should be together.
07:00 And the only player capable of receiving this ball is Moises Caicedo.
07:06 Because Fernandez, he needs to push up to make a chance happen.
07:09 And Galaga needs to be there already to make a chance happen.
07:13 And Nicholas Jackson wants to be up there in case a chance happens.
07:16 And that's a whole other thing entirely, Moises Caicedo.
07:20 We already did a video on the channel looking at
07:22 why you would go and buy Moises Caicedo.
07:24 One of the most press resistant defensive midfielders in the Premier League last year.
07:28 And then just be so reluctant to give him the ball under any pressure.
07:33 So just to wrap up before some kind of blood vessel goes in my head.
07:36 I've been saying it all season.
07:37 This Chelsea team, individually, really, really good.
07:42 You've got some unbelievable players here.
07:44 I will just maintain until my head physically pops that this team will come good eventually.
07:49 Like Levi Caldwell, love him, brilliant.
07:51 Chilwell, getting back to fitness.
07:52 Gustos look really good since James has been injured.
07:54 Fernandez is so good on the ball in the right areas.
07:58 There's such a great player in Caicedo, both defensively and in transition.
08:02 Look at what Cole Palmer's doing this year.
08:04 Nicholas Jackson, there is a diamond in that rough, I swear to God.
08:08 But the thing that drives me the most insane out of all of this
08:11 is they've also got a really intelligent, progressive manager on the touchline.
08:17 It's just that for some reason, what he sees in this squad
08:20 and what he thinks they're going to do does not align with reality at all.
08:25 He has at his disposal, like just the ultimate press resistant defensive midfielder
08:30 and they never want to give him the ball when he's being pressured.
08:33 And they've got this just technically brilliant, tempo setting, deep, creative midfielder
08:38 who's great at carrying the ball and dragging the team up the pitch.
08:41 And they just punch him into the number 10 position where he can't do anything.
08:45 And then most just of all is they've got Conor Gallagher.
08:50 Like probably the best off the ball attacking midfielder.
08:53 Someone who can lead a press better than any other Wales in the Premier League.
08:57 And they don't press well as a unit.
08:59 And if it sounds like I'm going slightly mad here, it's because I am.
09:03 Yeah, I am.
09:04 Like you can see why Tottenham wanted Conor Gallagher so much.
09:08 Like him playing for that side or Liverpool or just anybody
09:11 with a well-structured front foot press.
09:15 He'd look amazing.
09:16 That's enough. I've had enough though.
09:17 I can't, like I've been doing this all season going,
09:19 "Look, there's something there with Chelsea, I promise."
09:22 And there is. I'm not wrong about it.
09:24 It's just, they just can't get it together.
09:27 They're not playing in a way that's maximising the ability they have.
09:30 And I'm never, ever going to call for a manager to go,
09:34 but he just needs to have a really long, hard look at what he's trying to do here.
09:38 And not do that.
09:40 Anyway, I'm going to go now before one of my eyes comes out of my head.
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10:26 And I just forgot to say bye at the end
10:28 because this Chelsea team has turned my brain into guacamole.
10:34 So I'm going to get a pit of bread and dunk that in my ear.
10:37 Goodbye.