London is Blue Dispatch #057

Wrexham’s two big men, James McClean & Ollie Palmer were the first to ring the bells. The earliest incident of note in Chelsea’s first preseason game was McClean snapping into Levi Colwill a second late, leading to a physical altercation where both had to be separated. Palmer, standing at 196 cms, regularly looked to flick on long balls in behind the last line for McClean, but the 35-year-old just didn’t have the afterburners to make it click.

Celtic, however, did not lack for pace. Kyogo Furuhashi spent the first half not in front of Chelsea’s last line but 5 yards offside behind it. As soon as Maeda or Forrest were released on either wing against Colwill or Fofana, he turned dead space into the most dangerous position on the pitch. With the CBs tasked with man-marking players into the opponent’s half, no one knew who to take Furuhashi dawdling in space on the second goal, despite Robert Sanchez yelling “Wes! Wes!” furiously at the Frenchman.

Each one of the five games posed the same dilemma to Maresca and his team – what if your opponent brought a gun to a sword fight? Celtic, City, Real all figured out very quickly that the best way to hurt the Blues was to target a fragile last line. Only against a poor Club América did the Blues escape with a clean-sheet; welcome respite before two difficult games. Six goals were then shipped to the English and Spanish champions. It could have been much, much worse.

The problem isn’t Maresca’s tactics alone. In a different team, or with the same one, albeit in different circumstances, they might just have yielded dividends. At Leicester, his CBs, including an aging Vestergaard, followed strikers to the edge of the penalty box, trying to force high turnovers. By assigning each defender a man, there is explicit responsibility assigned to each player. 11 vs 11 becomes eleven 1v1 games across the pitch, which works when you have the best squad with the best wages in the Championship, where players good enough to play in the PL are going 1v1 against Championship players. More than coaching, in the end, player quality, or how optimally it is expressed, wins you football matches.

Maresca is finding that out the hard way. Benoit Badiashile had the worst season of his senior career for reasons that defy rationale. Levi Colwill, a quality centerback in every right, was challenged to play LB by Pochettino, and struggled too. Wes Fofana played his first minutes this preseason after 400+ days. Disasi, also hounded by poor form, was recovering from a hernia that undoubtedly contributed to his struggles. Tosin, a new arrival, has no pre-existing dynamics with any of the others. Interestingly, the aggressive stopper duties at Fulham were performed by his CB partner Calvin Bassey. Reece James made five starts in preseason, as many as he made in all of last season in the league. This is a delicate unit, physically and psychologically.

It is no surprise that there were grievous errors galore. Tosin’s horrendous error led to Haaland’s penalty. Badiashile set up a Celtic goal with a misplaced pass. Colwill was burnt multiple times out wide at LB; on Real’s opener, he stepped out to close down Vinicius and looked like he was wading in quicksand when Real flooded the box. Reece, was asked to inverted into midfield in the first couple of games and then switched to centerback. In his first engagement against Vinicius, the Brazilian spun him effortlessly. The second led to Vinicius again gliding past. The third almost led to a dangerous shot, but Reece recovered to make a last-minute tackle.

Celtic’s forwards kept attacking the space in behind, Real and City drew out markers at will, leaving one CB to defend against a CF. Defending is hard when your centerbacks are either starved of confidence or a defensive system is unfamiliar. Imagine how much worse it is with both. If one defender struggles, it is probably form. When all of them struggle, it is definitely the system. 12 conceded in 4 games against Wrexham, Celtic, City & Real is hard evidence.

Most worryingly, Maresca radiated little assurance with his reading of the issues. "It's a habit. We are not working on defensive lines so high,” he said after the Real game. “It's a habit from last year, or years ago; I don't know. We are trying to drop the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five metres, just to have some advantage.” An odd thing to say considering Chelsea only had the 9^th highest defensive line in the PL last season, a full six meters deeper than the likes of City and Arsenal. Leicester’s line regularly breached the halfway line during his time in the Championship. Something doesn’t add up.

One final dress rehearsal remains before two crucial fixtures – one against the Champions, another to open a path into the Conference League. A solution isn’t out of reach, which is a positive, one imagines. Minor concessions – easing off on the degree of man-marking, going zonal quicker – could make massive differences. If Maresca makes his CBs’ jobs easier, they will make his job easier too. Sometimes, football is that simple.