FA Cup Final: Manchester United vs Chelsea- A Tactical Battle

Chelsea

Hazard will be the key man for the Blues

Chelsea usually play with a three-man backline with two offensive wingbacks in Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses. However, the midfield and attacking formation keeps on changing between a 3-4-3 and 3-5-2. Tiemoue Bakayako is used as the third midfielder in the 3-5-2 formation, while Willian replaces the Frenchman in the 3-4-3. Here, we will analyze both the formations.

The 3-4-3: Defensive Shape

Chelsea’s three-man backline appears to be quite an offensive move, but Antonio Conte is a shrewd tactician and hence he knows how to maintain a proper balance between attack and defence. Whenever the team loses the ball, the two wingbacks are often instructed to fall back and track the opposite winger to win the ball back.

Meanwhile, the three central defenders maintain a compact shape, and they overload the penalty box by closing down spaces. When Moses and Alonso track behind, it primarily becomes a five-man backline without the ball and the defensive shape becomes very dense. This makes it difficult for the opposition to break down the backline, and that is due to various reasons.

Cesar Azpilicueta is a good reader of the game, and he can intercept balls coming in through the middle. He is good with the ball at his feet too and makes accurate decisions of how to build the play with his composed presence. When the opposition team senses this, they try to shift the play to the flanks.

Here, Moses and Alonso remain well positioned to stop the crosses from going into the box. However, if they fail in doing so, then Chelsea have the huge presence of Gary Cahill at the centre of the box. The Englishman is extremely strong in the air; times his jumps well and can make regular, constant headed clearances.

This is one of the main reasons that Cahill will be preferred over Andreas Christensen, as the Dane is quite young, and weaker when compared to Cahill. Gary holds the opposite forward well, and his presence is crucial in handling strong forwards such as Lukaku or even Pogba (when the Frenchman barges into the box).

The midfielders are assigned with proper positions too. Kante is an exceptional ball-winner and doesn’t allow the opposition number to maintain more possession at the centre of the park. The Frenchman is unadventurous with the ball, and his passing isn’t the most incisive in my opinion. However, his energy helps him to drive the team ahead from deeper positions in the field.

So, whenever Chelsea recover the ball through Cahill or Azpi, they pass it to Kante, and then Kante takes the ball along with the entire team ahead. He then passes it to the nearby midfielder or the wingers. Cesc Fabregas isn’t the most tenacious midfielder, and his tackles are puerile too. Hence, Conte prefers to assign the defensive work to Willian.

The Brazilian, pretty much like Kante, is very diligent and always tracks his runner behind. He relies more on putting the pressure on the opposition rather than winning the ball. Most of the times, you can see him combining with Moses on the right-wing and then the Brazilian launches a counter attack as soon as Moses passes him the ball after winning it.

Meanwhile, Eden Hazard tries to get in unmarked positions on the opposite flank. He tends to get into the spaces between the lines. Only Giroud, Hazard and Fabregas to a certain extent are freed from defensive work in this overly offensive looking Chelsea formation.

The 3-4-3: Attacking Shape

Once Chelsea recover the possession of the ball, there is a swift transition from defence to attack. Azpilicueta’s composure on the ball, coupled with Kante’s tendency to drive the team ahead with precision help Chelsea to turn defence into attack quickly. The team changes its shape as soon as they gain the ball, and the first change comes through the wingbacks in this formation.

Actually, the wingbacks need to cover a lot of distance, as they have to run up and down the pitch according to the demands of the situation. Moses and Alonso are incredibly fit and quick athletes, and that is one of the main reasons why both of them have excelled whilst playing out wide on the field. Their primary instinct is to overlap their adversary on the wing and to take advanced positions by stretching the opposition’s backline.

Alonso is one of the best crossers in the league, and the presence of Giroud in the box makes this tactic even more viable. Moses was a winger early in his career and hence he has the habit of remaining extremely busy in the final third. Moreover, Chelsea pulled off a masterstroke by luring in Giroud in the January transfer window. Morata was proving to be lacklustre in front of the goal, and Hazard is not the best when it comes to winning aerial duels.

Giroud keeps the opposition central defenders busy with his strong physical demeanour. He is best suitable for Chelsea’s attacking game, which is mostly based on wingbacks putting in crosses into the box. Fabregas takes up the role of creator in this formation, and he is the only suitable person in the current squad to link up the midfield to attack.

Fabregas’ work-rate has been extremely poor this season, and he does not even chase the second balls in order to recover the possession. However, he can form some good passing combinations with either Hazard or Willian at the edge of the box. The Spaniard’s main contributions come when he makes those outrageously accurate long balls into the box in search of either Giroud or Morata inside the box.

He is also a good set-piece taker, but the role of Fabregas in this Chelsea lineup is quite undefined or has become restricted due to his poor form this season. However, lack of better alternatives might still help him retain a starting spot in the finals. Anyways, he is one link whom Manchester United might target, as Fabregas has been found wanting in both defence and attack in recent times.

Willian’s direct dribbling and quick pace will be important whenever Chelsea break on the counter-attack. His combinational play with Hazard in these counter-attacks has often threatened the opposition’s backline. Chelsea caught United off-guard when Willian scored from a similar counter-attack, at Old Trafford this February.

Willian’s interlinking with Hazard was both sublime and precise, and it took a matter of seconds for Chelsea to dismantle United’s defensive shape. While attacking, Hazard performs the best when he is played as the left-winger. The Belgian drifts in and across the forward line to create play around the penalty box.

He should be given the positional freedom to propel, and hence there was a sudden dip in his form when Conte played him as the false 9. There is much more to Hazard’s play than mere goal scoring, and Groud needs to be efficient and prolific in order to finish off the chances created by the Belgian.

The 3-5-2: Defensive Shape

Chelsea usually revert to the 3-5-2 from the 3-4-3 in certain matches. The biggest exclusion from this side is always Willian, as there is actually no place for a right-winger in this formation. Tiemoue Bakayako makes his way into the team in Willian’s expense, and that means that the Frenchman takes up the box-to-box role in the midfield.

Starting with the team’s backline, the back three stay in their positions accordingly and they don’t have to push ahead as such. This is because, they have another midfielder in Bakayako, to whom the central defenders can pass the ball to carry it out from the back. Cahill normally sits deeper than Azpilicueta and Rudiger, which makes this formation narrower at times.

This is so that Cahill could clear out the crosses, and the deliveries made into the box safely. Alonso and Moses fall back, and Chelsea swiftly reorganize their defence to form a five-man backline in order to have at least one/two extra men in defence. This is usually beneficial when compared to the opposition’s forward line. Both Alonso and Moses are strong physically, and their primary objective is to clear out the attempted cross.

Alonso is often suspect of not tracking his marker to the near post. That forces Rudiger to shift wider to help Alonso in that aspect. This creates a hole in Chelsea’s defence, as Cahill, Azpi and Moses accordingly drift inside in order to cover the space vacated by Rudiger.

The opposition targets this loophole by sending in long balls to the left flank, as Rudiger will have to shift there in order to win the second ball. This would allow the opposition at least some space to work on near the penalty box.

Kante is benefitted by the support of Bakayako, as both the midfielders are quite good on the ball and can exchange some quick passes before laying it off to Hazard on the other side. Despite this, Bakayako is extremely culpable of making some silly, regular errors while defending. He does not time his challenges well, and hence ends up making costly errors whilst tracking back or pressing the opposition.

Kante, meanwhile, is energetic and lively in deep midfield. He sits very deep along with Bakayako, and try to hit the opposition on the counter. Fabregas, too, has to take up some defensive work here as Willian’s absence means that Chelsea need someone with the same level of tenacity to press the opposition and to win the ball in the midfield.

However, to be honest, Chelsea are more vulnerable in defence while playing a 3-5-2. This is because of the fact that here they have two players i.e. Fabregas and Bakayako who are weaker on the defensive front. This leaves Kante to do the majority of the job and leaves him to cover lots of space, as Bakayako has been extremely hesitant to pressurize the opposition when they have the ball.

Willian’s presence makes Chelsea’s pressing game way more effective. However, in a 3-5-2, Chelsea have a lot of defensive work, and relatively lesser armoury to tackle that.

The 3-5-2: Attacking Shape

Willian’s exclusion from the team means that the right winger is absent for Chelsea. However, Moses’ occasional instinct over here is to overlap and then to provide a cross into the box. Once Victor commits himself completely, it leaves the right back position empty.

However, Bakayako shifts wider, and so does Azpilicueta and that gives Moses the license to attack completely. Bakayako’s role from an attacking perspective is very fascinating, as the Frenchman has the license to drive the team ahead and to add a physically strong body in the opposition box.

This helps Kante sit back and that gives him the time to read and thwart attacks. In all fairness, Bakayako fulfills the attacking demands of his box-to-box role more convincingly than the defensive duties. He has to track back when necessary, but the former AS Monaco star is given the partial freedom to attack. This is due to the fact that he has someone as safe as Kante sitting deeper in the field.

Fabregas tries to join the dots in the midfield, as he tries to link up the likes of Alonso and particularly Hazard with his accurate passing. Though the Spaniard is prone to defensive unawareness, he can provide those incisive, pinpoint long balls into the box or to Hazard near the edge of the box.

Alonso’s role remains the same, as he tries to stretch the opposition’s backline and then sends hopeful deliveries inside the box. The major positional change is that of Hazard’s, as the Belgian has no fixed position in this formation. He is given the free role behind the striker. Now, though Hazard starts from the left, he regularly roams around the frontline.

This creates unrest in the opposition’s half and it makes it even more difficult to mark the diminutive Belgian. He can play either on wings or even through the centre in this formation. Giroud, too, is more mobile and takes more part in the buildup play than usual. He tries to drop a bit deeper and to interlink with Hazard in order to create goal-scoring opportunities.

Conclusively, this formation takes a bit more effort from every player when the team looks to attack. However, it allows Hazard to play in an absolute free role, and this positional freedom gives him the incentive to influence attacks from any direction around the penalty box.