Chelsea v Sheffield United: Tactical Analysis
Chelsea finally win against a low block...
Chelsea got back to winning ways against a tough low-block team that we’ve struggled against this season and most importantly picked up a much-needed win at home.
Let’s dissect how we managed that….
Chelsea lined up in their regular 4-2-3-1 formation with a CB-dominated back 4, with players out injured. Chris Wilder stuck with the 4 at the back formation that Paul Heckingbottom has been using as opposed to the 3 he used at his last spell at Sheffield Utd.
Chelsea Immediately lay down the pattern of how the game was going to go with Sheffield very set on sitting back and denying them any space to play with a compact 4-4-2 shape, which is probably a good plan more than teams that open up to try to get at us.
Chelsea managed to pin Sheffield in their half for most of the game and the way they did that was by staying close and reducing the distances between the lines that we probably didn’t see in the last games; slowing the game down so it was easier to have players close to each other to counter press one we lost the ball. Those moments were the only times we managed to get some space in the game and in the first half. Gallagher and Caicedo were key to this. But Sheffield did a good job of closing down the space when Chelsea tried to capitalize on it when they lost the ball.
We need to play more like this, even Sterling was on it…
Chelsea Counter Pressing situations
When they didn’t have the ball, Chelsea tried to press at every opportunity. Sheffield aren’t skilled enough to play out and they don’t, so they couldn’t keep the ball.
Chelsea Pressing situations
Sheffield only tried to use McBurnie's strength in the air to get on to Long balls to try to get out of their half. That and Chelsea's own unforced mistakes. But our backline dealt with everything they threw at them both in play and during set pieces.
Chelsea dealing with Sheffield United’s aerial threat
Chelsea found it hard to get shooting chances, as they moved the ball well in their third but couldn’t generate chances that hardly penetrated Sheffield, especially in the first half. There was little movement, it was really only Jackson making runs in behind to stretch their backline. Palmer was dropping deep, Mudryk and Sterling were mostly wide and if they weren’t, Disasi and Colwill hardly overlapped (understandable as they are CBs).
Having them wasn’t helpful for attacks as they hardly gave Mudryk especially, little support. Just a few times they did. Mudryk also had little to combine within the LHS so he was left in 2v1s most of the time.
Mudryk isolated
This continued into Half-time, until actually at the end of the first half when Poch tweaked the attack with some positional changes, and yes it was before halftime.
He switched Sterling from the wide right to play just in behind and around Jackson almost like the 10, and Palmer was also floating but stayed wider and deeper on the right where he had more time and space to pick out passes. When he dropped deep to play those passes in the first half, he had few runs to pick out, but Sterling helped with that now.
Sterling’s ability to turn and carry the ball and make runs in behind changed the game
What this did was Sterling, who is a threatening ball carrier in the half spaces. He was able to receive the ball, turn and drive at Sheffield's defence and create space for others. It was also more of a 4-4-2 with Sterling making runs along with Jackson (not just him now) to stretch Sheffield's backline more and create space in between the lines for Palmer and Gallagher to roam in there.
The Goals
Another thing Chelsea did well was they showed some maturity in their game and limited fouls in dangerous areas. Chelsea made only 9 fouls and gave Sheffield only 9 freekicks, far better than against Newcastle where we conceded 17 freekicks and gave away 19 fouls.
It may not look like Chelsea had a good game, but they did and managed to make it “boring”. I will take boring wins as long as we control the game, as we did and stayed patient. Poch made the necessary changes in shape and put Sterling more central, and with his ball-carrying and movement it opened up the game for us in the 2nd half. Chelsea could have made it 4 goals after creating 5 big chances.
Chelsea ended that game with a 3.05 xG, which is our 2nd highest xG performance of the season against a low-block team which we've been struggling to win against this season. It’s also worth noting Sheffield just got a new manager and made it hard for Liverpool and beat Brentford - we didn’t succumb to another new manager bounce. Despite some structural issues still being apparent and all, it wasn’t even close to our best performance, it was a positive result for the team and something they need to build on, we need consistency as soon as possible.
Seun
Great breakdown! I actually liked Sterling in the 10 much more than i thought i would, closet thing we have had to Carney in there since his injury. Will be interesting if Poch continues that moving forward.
The second half was a dramatic improvement from the first where we were slow and created nothing. My only gripe with the second half he was played very well for 5/10 mins and then went back to control and boring would of been nice to see them go for the kill and try score 4/5
Another great breakdown Seun - thanks. Your words dovetailed brilliantly with the video clips and illustrated well exactly the points you were making. Well done!