Flamengo vs Chelsea Review: Maresca hinting at tactical change?

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Back when the CWC draw pitted Chelsea against the Mengão, Flamengo fans weren’t worried, they were jubilant. Their side arrived in this fixture 11 games into the Brasileirão season and sitting atop the rest, just about ideal time to fine-tune themselves to pristine condition. Chelsea, in contrast, arrived looking like they’d finished playing 50 games over 11 months, flying everywhere from North America to Kazakhstan. The headlines were written long before Nicolas Jackson received the worst birthday card of his life.

The result rightly stayed front & center of all analysis, which is why the more telling takeaway from this game was perhaps drowned out by the noise. When asked about Cole Palmer’s listless display, Maresca replied that Palmer “played in a different structure today to prepare for next season to have different options.” The most intriguing talking point of the game came after the final whistle.

When Romeo Lavia was fit, Maresca spent a lot of last season desperately trying to fit 3 CMs into the same line up. One iteration saw Moises Caicedo slot in at RB, the other, after another Jackson red, saw Enzo Fernandez on the left wing. Maresca’s obsession with control, best achieved by a core of three technically sound CMs is something he insisted on during his time at Leicester as well. The 4-2-3-1 is familiar to Chelsea fans, the 4-3-3 he used at Leicester, they saw that for the first time against Flamengo.

This one though, was slightly different to the one deployed at Leicester, where the fullbacks did not slot into midfield and defence. Both were used in their conventional roles, a departure from their usual duties. The 4-3-3 allowed Maresca to use his 3 CMs without inverting one or adding volatility into the mix.

However, it did lead to issues elsewhere. The 4-3-3 has no space for a 10, hence Palmer started at RW. At Leicester Dewsbury-Hall went from the 10 in the 4-2-3-1 to the 8/10 in the 4-3-3. There are two slots for Palmer in the 4-3-3 – a familiar role at RW, which would entail a more intensive role of tracking his fullback into deeper positions repeatedly, or as the 8/10, which for tactical and squad-building reasons, feels a suboptimal use of resources. Palmer’s first 25 minutes against Flamengo were comfortably his worst in a Chelsea shirt by a light year. He had four touches, attempted one pass and completed none.

Reece James is also a conundrum in the 4-3-3. Maresca publicly declared that his move to midfield was one that wasn’t just a great fit but a move to protect him from his injury issues. In this 4-3-3, you either use Reece as the 8, or in the now adventurous RB slot, which would be throwing him back into the intensive role Maresca said he was protecting his captain from. There’s also the issue that Chelsea have 4 players better suited to performing that role in midfield – one of whom was one of the best CMs in Europe last season and has yet to see a single minute in the Club World Cup.

Is this the new plan A or a new plan B? It is hard to say, but it goes without saying that where Chelsea suffered most last season was output from the wings. Neto, Madueke, Sancho all struggled to hit their targets in a system that afforded them little to no off-ball support from overlapping fullbacks or underlapping central midfielders. Against Flamengo, there were glimpses of both – which is the kind of setup that will almost certainly elevate numbers from Noni Madueke and the incoming Estevão. There are some bafflingly easy corrections Maresca can make to get the most out of his 4-3-3 – bring Santos either at RCM (Lavia/Caicedo at DM) or DM (Caicedo at RCM), move Reece to right back. The question is if Maresca is consciously holding his cards close to his chest, or if this is another familiar case of him trying to fit square pegs in round holes. Which one of those proves true could define Maresca’s 2^nd season at the helm.