Chelsea vs PSG Tactical Review: How Maresca's Blues dismantled the European Champions.

10 seconds into the game, Maresca and his side to set the stage. Chelsea set up in an aggressive 4-4-2 out-of-possession. If you want to make a statement of intent, dedicating six players to pressing PSG in their own defensive third is one way to do it.

Donnarumma collects the ball and passes it to his captain, Marquinhos. As soon as the Brazilian carries to the edge of his box, Enzo Fernandez sparks the press to life. Marquinhos goes to his CB partner Beraldo, who is immediately pressed by João Pedro.

With a 6v7 disadvantage in this situation, almost every Chelsea player in that front six is on double duty. Neto and Palmer, the wingers, were primarily on PSG’s fullbacks, but also had to keep one eye on the 8s - Neto on Neves, Palmer tucking in on Ruiz. PSG’s 8s were the responsibility of Chelsea’s pivots, which left Vitinha, PSG’s DM. PSG’s Portuguese maestro was primarily Enzo’s responsibility, but Chelsea’s front 2 were both in charge of cutting out the passing lane to him as well as pressing PSG’s first line of 2 CBs and the goalkeeper. All this allowed Chelsea to have a 4v3 advantage on PSG’s front 3, while simultaneously remaining compact centrally, maximizing risk and minimizing options for PSG’s excellent midfield.

The press forces Beraldo to go to Mendes at the touchline, triggering a series of jumps from Chelsea’s press. PSG are now pretty much where Chelsea want them, squeezed against the touchline, under pressure. But there’s one glaring question - who picks up Fabian Ruiz?

Was it here that Maresca realized he knew the answer but a lot could go wrong? After all, a little over a year ago, be brought his Leicester side to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea. He chose to go man-to-man, and got destroyed. Two of his slowest players, CB Jannik Vestergaard and DM Harry Winks were asked to close down far quicker players in Nicolas Jackson and Mykhailo Mudryk. The result was his side conceding 26 shots, getting ripped to shreds on every break. Maresca knew that going man-to-man against PSG, despite Bayern’s encouraging display, could result in a thrashing he had experienced before. But he also knew that it was probably the only way to trouble PSG. It took immense courage to try where he’d failed before.

When all 3 of Chelsea’s midfielders were occupied, Chalobah was tasked with pushing up on Ruiz. With all his near-side options marked and a 3v3 on the last line, Mendes chooses to go long. On the ground, Ousmane Dembele is a nightmare against any defender in the world, but in the air on a long ball against Colwill, there’s only one winner. With Caicedo able to drop, Chelsea had a 4 v 3 on any attempt from PSG to go long.

More questions

2-and-a-half minutes in, PSG, like all great teams, tried to ask more serious questions. This is a PSG build up again, only this time, PSG have adapted. Vitinha has dropped from midfield to the last line. A 3v2 against PSG is hard enough, a 4v2 is excruciating. This is PSG and Enrique telling a manager who did his Coverciano thesis on the parallels between football and chess - your move.

The instructions from Maresca seemed explicit - structure is important, but not more than space & time is. Reece James leaves midfield and chases his man Vitinha to the opposition box. Once more Ruiz is free; like clockwork, Chalobah follows him. There is once more a 3v3 at the back, but Cucurella, Colwill, Gusto are better than Doue, Dembele and Kvaratskhelia in the air. More importantly, Chelsea aren’t giving any space to PSG’s dangerous trio in the engine room, so the only option is to go long, which PSG do again. This time Kvaratskhelia comes central to throw Colwill off, but his flick is recovered by Chelsea’s free man - Palmer, who prioritizes staying central over being closer to his marker Mendes.

The Riposte

Malo Gusto’s time under Maresca before the club world cup was a baptism by fire. The young French international went from being one of Europe’s most promising fullbacks to inverting into central midfield and popping up in the right half-space as an AM. The results were catastrophic. He registered the lowest touches per 90 minutes in his senior career, and committed almost twice as many errors leading to shots (5) than in his entire senior career before than combined (3.) Maresca deserves a major part of the blame, but after a Club World Cup campaign where he showed a willingness to free his fullbacks, he turned an under-fire asset into a game-winning one.

The first signs of trouble for PSG came in the 15th minute. Reece James and Caicedo, both occupied by PSG’s 8s, both stayed narrow and moved to the left, pulling Ruiz (LCM) away from his fullback. When Sanchez makes eye-contact with Gusto, he sees an indication to hit the space his manager had identified as PSG’s weak spot.

Palmer’s clever movement and Kvaratskhelia being caught out by the long ball put Nuno Mendes in a major dilemma. He is now overloaded, like Maresca mentioned, by Chelsea’s right side. Back on his favoured flank, Gusto’s engine cranks up a sprint, and he gallops past a frantically backpedalling Mendes into space. The cross to Enzo doesn’t really amount to much, but about six minutes late, it breaks PSG.

Once more Palmer drops from RW and drags PSG’s left side towards him. Gusto, here is holding width, and Sanchez’s superb passing performance saw him pick out another great long ball for Gusto to attack.

Had Gusto been inverting, this probably wouldn’t have worked. Ruiz would have had a more comfortable time being a player who struggled receiving centrally, while a long ball to Palmer to compete in an aerial duel would have been quite the ask, considering he has won 3 aerial duels in 60 league games for Chelsea.

While Gusto did get fortunate with the ball bouncing off Mendes’ head into his path, there was little to do with fortune in the third goal.

Maresca and Gusto both know the drill here - Palmer is dropping centrally from RW, and as is Nuno Mendes, leaving the flank open for raiding.

Gusto waits for Chalobah to come close enough to demand Kvaratskhelia’s attention, and then expertly explodes off the blindside. Maresca, a former midfielder, actually scans both ways and sees the move unfold.

When Mendes sees Palmer receiving unmarked and that Gusto has not been tracked, his scream of anguish is caught loud and clear on the sideline microphones. Gusto surges instantly to the last line, ‘pinning’ Mendes there. If Mendes decides to step up to his marker, Palmer, it leaves Gusto open. If Mendes, holds like he does here, Palmer carries unopposed, which is exactly what happens.

When the ball reaches the attacking 3rd, Mendes is still being pinned, so Beraldo is forced to step out of the backline. This allows Joao Pedro to make a run behind Beraldo into the vacated space, and with Beraldo and Mendes both hesitant to commit, Palmer slides a lovely pass in for the 3rd. Gusto though, again crucial to it without even touching the ball for the 20 seconds leading to the goal.

The First 10 Minutes

Maresca was right when he said the first 10 minutes were definitive. There were many other subplots (which would turn this dispatch into a novella) but the two that decided how Chelsea behaved without the ball and what they tried to do with it worked a treat. Key to this was moving Gusto where he has always belonged, but also total buy in from the players - even when it demanded that they have one eye on their man and the other on the space behind them. The result was more than just a win - it was showing the world that they had a manager who could plan a heist, and a team good enough to execute it.