Chelsea's Tactical Issues vs Palace & What Needs Fixing.

A rough first encounter in the PL against Palace saw the Blues face frustrations similar to those they endured last season. In this detailed piece, we’ll explore one macro issue that kept the Blues from hurting the Eagles and a few micro, personnel issues that require further polishing.

The Blueprints

For Chelsea, Maresca rolled out a setup he has often used against back 3/5 sides. This is the 3-diamond-3 ( a 3-1-5-1/3-4-3.)

Palace go with their trusty 3-4-2-1, a 5-2-3/5-2-2-1 out of possession. Using an extra man in defence means there is a deficiency elsewhere. For most sides it is in attack, for Palace, it is in midfield - with only a double pivot protecting the back 5. The idea from Maresca, as always, is to overload the center with 4 players. By inverting Cucurella into midfield, Chelsea now have 3 AMs behind Palace’s double pivot, in the space between the midfield & defence line. Two of those are Enzo Fernandez & Cole Palmer, two players capable of receiving under pressure and in tight spaces, and possessing the guile & ingenuity to lockpick defences.

Things on paper rarely every translate on to a football field though. Palace’s plan was to stay extremely narrow and compact, using their front 3 and their middle 2 to not just mark players but to cut-off access to others.

In the first minute of the game you can see Mateta, the CF, who is tasked with pressing Acheampong (CCB) also cutting out the passing lane to Caicedo. The two AMs, Eze and Sarr are tasked with pressing Chelsea’s wide CBs but to also cut out access to the the AMs behind them in Enzo and Cucurella.

The pivot, Wharton and Hughes, are technically marking their midfield counterparts, but also making double sure Palmer has no place to receive centrally.

The Palace press springs into action as Chelsea try to progress towards the half-line. Eze, Mateta and Sarr press Chelsea’s 3, Mateta is still blocking Caicedo’s lane but you can see Wharton is moving towards the Ecuadorian to reduce spaces between lines, while Hughes is trying towards his man, Enzo, who is looking to drift out wide. A space opens up between Palace’s midfield and defensive lines, with Palmer and Cucurella having a lot more space.

To rectify this, Palace’s RCB, Richards, pushes up on Cucurella. Lacroix, in the middle of the defence, is telling Guehi to keep an eye on the free Palmer as he is pinned by João Pedro. The WBs take Chelsea’s wingers. You can see Palace’s front 5 are squeezed very narrow, making it very hard to access the 4 central players. Build up in particular is hard to execute with Chelsea’s players too close together, allowing Palace to press and cover shorter distances quickly.

As the move progresses, you can see Richards, the RCB, move tighter to Cucurella. Hughes decides against following Enzo out to the flank and decides to stay narrower to block the lane to Cole Palmer. However, with Hughes asked to do both things in this game, he now has a lot of ground to cover between both his markers. That, and Palace’s insistence on staying narrow makes Enzo Fernandez the free option out wide. Acheampong is on the ball, has his head up and sees no progressive options. This is one of Josh’s prime challenges as Levi Colwill’s stand-in at CCB - the courage to find progressive solutions under pressure.

And that is exactly what Acheampong does, using his long strides to glide past Mateta into the pressure. This is one of De Zerbi's (a close friend and a big influence on Maresca) principles - play into the pressure. Provoke a response, cause panic. There are 11 Chelsea & Palace players scrunched into the middle 3rd, and Acheampong’s carry forces Palace even narrower. Acheampong now has options on either side of the congested central zone.

Palace’s pivot is caught in an awkward position and Acheampong is able to find Enzo, allowing Chelsea’s first attacking move in the game.

In the initial stages of the game, Chelsea tried to toy with the midfield pivot but it is a testament to Glasner’s coaching that they responded with confident aggression. Here, Caicedo and Palmer are nearly on the same line, dragging Palace’s pivot narrow. Reece spots the opportunity to play Cucurella in the pocket on either side of the pivot, the 5-2-3’s weakness.

Even before Cucurella can take a touch, it is Muñoz who leaves Gittens and jumps aggressively on the Spaniard, and forces him to play back. Moving it quickly through the center was not going to be easy.

Suffocating the Engine

Palace weren’t just content with a static approach. They were actively expecting the Blues to stick to their strengths & play it into the press. Palace were actively anticipating it and were hoping to force mistakes through it. Here again Palace press the Chelsea back 3 with their front 3; Richards is high on Cucurella, the Palace pivots are on the Chelsea pivots. 6 options, all marked - very little margin for error.

Acheampong at CCB, again feeling the pressure to take on the burden of progression, tries to punch a diagonal through Palace’s first line.

The pressure tells, and Eze intercepts. Mateta is 1v1 on Acheampong here, and a simple pass could put him through. Eze recognizes the offside and doesn’t play the ball - but that’s the risk Chelsea were toying with.

Below is another sequence, but this time Trev Chalobah attempting to find Caicedo in the lone pivot. The pass is slightly overhit, leading to another dangerous giveaway for Palace.

Adaptation

So how do you adapt to this? In the 23/24 season, Chelsea were playing Nottingham Forest away after putting together a strong run after inverting Cucurella to LCM. Forest adapted with a similar 5-2-3 and the Blues struggled to put things together. Poch adapted by making a simple tweak, putting Cucurella back to his LB slot, making a back 4 vs the Forest front 3, allowing for easier build up.

Against Palace, Chelsea tried a few tweaks too. One involved asking Caicedo to drop into the backline to make a back 4, and Enzo slipping into the pivot to cause the Palace front 3 an issue.

Another tweak saw Caicedo trade places with Enzo, moving into the RAM slot as Enzo dropped to the lone pivot. This took Palace by surprise for a moment. Enzo, who has played deeper for Argentina, Benfica and for Chelsea under Graham Potter, and here he asks Cucurella to move wider, dragging Richards away from João Pedro and away from Sarr’s narrow position.

He finds Chalobah, who sees the opportunity to find a line-breaker for João Pedro, who is scanning to see Palmer’s availability to receive.

João tries to find Palmer, but Lacroix staying very tight allows him to nip in and dispossess the Brazilian. It is perhaps too early to cast doubts on João Pedro’s ability to lead the line against quality back 3s, but this is one reason why Roberto De Zerbi and Fabian Hürzeler used him as one of two 9s or behind a centerforward. Something to watch against West Ham and Max Kilman (although West Ham’s back 3 will pose a weaker challenge compared to Palace’s excellent unit.)

Crack in the Crystal

Palace, for an overwhelming majority of the game, executed their game plan well. But in high-level games against high-level opponents, fatigue sets in. In Palace’s strategy Eze and Sarr as the AMs are asked to do double-roles - press the Chelsea CBs, but to also keep an eye on the AMs behind them. Take for instance Sarr in Palace’s 5-4-1. For 70 odd minutes, Sarr diligently carried out his tactical duties, even tracking back 50 yards to help Muñoz triple up on Gittens.

But in the 78th minute, the first lapse happened. Watch Eze’s positioning here, prioritizing closing the lane to Enzo over trying to do half-heartedly also cover Reece at RB. Compare that to Sarr, who is half-and-half between both his men, leaving Cucurella open to a good pass.

You can see Wharton warning Sarr to stay closer to Cucurella after the gap widens. You can see Delap, who is on here for João Pedro, pinning both the CCB, Lacroix, and Richards (LCB), making it tough for the latter to jump on Cucurella without leaving Lacroix 1v1. Caicedo spots the chance and punches a nice pass through.

Cucurella is able to receive in the rare & invaluable space between Palace’s lines. Palmer also leaves Wharton behind, and is now open for a square pass.

With Sarr out of the way, Richards jumps late out of panic, leaving Delap 1v1 with Lacroix. Cucurella finds a nice ball to Palmer unmarked, in front of the last line.

Here’s another instance, in the 87th minute, with Sarr committing the same error. Once more Caicedo finds him in too much space, once more Richards jumps too late. This time Delap does receive the ball on the 1v1 with Lacroix.

Finding the New Guys

In the micro-aspect, the attack did look understandably cluttered with half of the front four in Nicolas Jackson & Noni Madueke out of the picture. While João Pedro made a scintillating start to life in the Club World Cup, this posed his first big challenge in a Chelsea shirt - how well can you knit the attack together? Two CBs breathing down his neck at all times offered a significant challenge, with Lacroix in particular getting touch tight and hassling him on every touch. What will almost certainly help is to fine-tune and align the wavelength on which he and his teammates are playing.

Take for instance, his off-the-ball movement as a 9. With Palace shutting down all central access, there was an opportunity to try and go direct at the last line. That’s what happened in the first 92 seconds of the game, with Reece James picking out a long ball on the channel for him to chase.

From here João drags two CBs’ attention but is able to also drag them away to the flank, vacating the center of the box.

The fluid and aggressive right side quickly arrives to support his run, with Palmer and Enzo both offering off ball support while Neto stays in space. Palace’s entire back 3 is dragged to the left, leaving only Muñoz in the middle of the box, with Gittens making his way to the far post and Cucurella attacking from LAM. While Cucurella is quickly turning out to be a genuine box threat, Gittens at the far post for a header is something largely ornamental considering how poor he is in the air. At Brighton, it would be João Pedro in Gittens’ position at LW, unmarked, with the freedom to attack the far post (he’s excellent in the air.)

There were other instances where the current nascent understanding between the attack was laid bare. Here for instance João makes two runs in quick succession across Lacroix but isn’t found either time. Note the direction of these runs, this is crucial - both are made to create horizontal separation rather than vertical.

The ball is moved to Caicedo, who plays a lovely pass to Palmer, who is able to receive and turn in a zone he so often is lethal from.

When Palmer turns, Lacroix panics and steps out, leaving João Pedro 1v1 with Richards. After two runs though, JP is caught offside trying to reset for the third run. Even if he had been on, he probably wouldn’t have exploded off-the-shoulder. It’s not something he does a lot, nor does he have the long burst to put yards between himself and a quick CB.

The Athletic’s Mark Carey did a piece analyzing João’s movement, and unsurprisingly, runs in behind featured at 2nd bottom. Jackson, by contrast, was the Premier League’s top striker for runs in behind. Whether that’s a good or bad thing only time will tell; but having a frontline full of on-ball wizards and no off-ball demons isn’t a good thing at all.

The result is that on the move above, João does what he often does - he receives in front of the defender rather than behind. By the time he begins his carry, a 1v1 one has turned into a Palace backline of 7 furiously retreating towards the box and eviscerating a promising opening.

Making optimal use of the skillsets of the new attackers will be a non-negotiable if Chelsea are to score the number of goals they need to challenge for the title. An intriguing sub-plot to the Palace tie was to see how Jamie Gittens would fare in his transition from the space-laden Bundesliga to the claustrophobic realm of back 3s and low blocks. 90 seconds into the game, Gittens receives in space with Muñoz out of position after having jumped on Cucurella.

Glasner isn’t worried. He tells his right centerback to delay. Sarr tracks back from RAM, Muñoz quickly retreats. Before Gittens knows it, he’s 2v1’ed, with Muñoz on his way to make it 3.

Which was Gittens’ first real test in the PL. When you cannot beat defenders in a foot race, who are you, really? During his time at Dortmund, Gittens showed glimpses of using his speed for more than just burning hamstrings of hapless defenders.

In the 43rd minute, a small window appeared to test familiar patterns. Gittens found himself 1v1 against Muñoz. There is an opportunity to take on, but Gittens decides to wait.

The delay sees Sarr arrive to help Muñoz with a 2v1. Cucurella at LAM does what he’s put there to do - to occupy Richards, the wide CB. Gittens sees the chance, and takes it.

He moves the ball to Chalobah, and then explodes between the double team set up to stop him, easily beating Muñoz in a foot-race despite the headstart. With Richards on Cucurella, a simple clipped ball into space puts Gittens where he’d love to be on debut.

Chalobah though takes the safer route and looks to play it short, to probe for a better opportunity.

Seconds before being subbed, Gittens repeats the movement. He once more delays on the left wing to draw two players, Cucurella’s advanced positioning keeps Richards preoccupied.

This time he plays it to Palmer, and again sprints past Sarr and Muñoz, bursting towards the box. Palmer’s creativity makes this a modestly difficult pass.

Gittens has daylight ahead of him, but Palmer instead spots 3 good headers of the ball in Enzo, Cucurella & João Pedro in the box and opts to cross instead. Gittens is left frustrated and goes off on debut with little to show.

Conclusion

It is still very early in the season, but Palace did set an early marker in showing the PL how you could stifle the world champions. Deny the central players access, diligently shut passing lanes to Palmer and force him deep or outside, essentially as far away from goal as you can.

With João Pedro & Gittens, building relationships on the pitch early in the season is where the gap between action and reaction is bridged. West Ham will arrive with another back 5 in all probability, with the formidable Wan-Bissaka giving Gittens another strong test, while boyhood Chelsea fan Max Kilman will be looking to spoil João Pedro’s day. At this point of the season, it is all about the little things.

You can listen to Sam & Dan’s West Ham Preview here! - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3FI9TwEywB9PE3FlO8cfsP