After a turbulent start to the season, Conte’s men seemed to be settled with their 3–5–2 revelation. It was timely tweak made by the Italian after the Blues seemed to lack any creativity whatsoever.
Ever since the shift to a dynamic 3–5–2, Chelsea have been wreaking havoc using their front two breaking away on the counter and also with their build-up play.
Let us see how the Blues fare going forward in the 3–5–2 right from the base:
Build-up play:
Build-up play and attacking by Chelsea have been very interesting under this formation as it is majorly based on a lot dynamism and movement from the midfielders and the front two.
With the midfield two of Fabregas & Bakayoko in the 3–4–3, both couldn’t afford to really make forward runs and join the attack with both bearing their defensive duties in their mid all the time.
First lets have a look at how the Blues work on playing out from the back.
The 3 center backs spread out to make the pitch as wide as possible to avoid the first line of pressure from the opponents. The above example was from the 1–1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield. As you can see, Cahill and Azpilicueta split on to the either side of Courtois with Christensen at the edge of the box. To ease the pressure, Kante is heading towards the box to give Courtois another option.
Courtois passes to Azpilicueta, who now has 3 options:
- Zappacosta to his right
- Kante (circled red) who has arrived to ease the pressure from the Liverpool front-line
- Return to Courtois who would in turn switch play to the other flank or go long.
However, building-up play with short-passing has been deployed more often against low pressure teams and Conte’s approach has generally been no non-sense against high pressing.
Long-ball distribution:
There has been a tendency to use more of long ball while build-up when Chelsea have deployed the 3–5–2 as compared to when using 3–4–3. With the 3–4–3, the fast, low pass to the foot of Pedro/Hazard from the center-back was deployed more often. Given that it has become a front two attack, probably the use of long ball has comparatively increased.
The following are the distribution statistics of Courtois with the 3–5–2 &
3–4–3 in 20 games (Premier League & UEFA Champions League combined)
This is the shape that the Blues have generally maintained during their build-up with the 3–5–2:
The 3 major options that Courtois looks for when playing a long ball are Alonso, Bakayoko and Morata as these are the players who are best fit to handle aerial duels against strong opponents.
We can take a look at Courtois’ passing patterns in the games that Chelsea fielded a 3–5–2:
Courtois’ passes attempted vs Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Champions League group stage fixture when Chelsea triumphed 1–2.
Courtois’ passes attempted vs Manchester United in the game at Stamford Bridge in which Chelsea won 1–0.
There are many such examples highlighting the same facts as the above mentioned.
As you can see from the above images, all of Courtois’ long ball attempts are directed towards the left flank where Alonso is and a few slightly inclined towards the center where Bakayoko & Morata would be waiting to receive.
This is where Alonso goes unnoticed as it is not often when your left wing back would be winning about 2.5 aerial duels per game. To stress on the same even further, the world’s top left backs namely Marcelo, Jordi Alba average approximately 0.4 aerial duels per game.
The Belgian Brilliance
Moving on to the next phase of build-up, it is all about Eden Hazard. Let’s check it out:
As you can see, Hazard (circled red) drops deep during build-up play and enjoys an absolute free role while Chelsea are on the attack. The Belgian can link up with Cesc and act as the second play maker or choose to overload the wing with Zappacosta or Alonso, he can receive, turn and have a go at the opposition defenders, shoot from long range, probably any decision which he feels at that moment of play.
It’s a very similar role to that of Lionel Messi in Barcelona, wherein he doesn’t have specific instructions while on the attack and can drop to anywhere on the pitch with trust on his attacking instinct.
If you take the example of the West Bromwich game when Chelsea humiliated them 0–4, the first 2 goals happened courtesy Hazard dropping deep. The first one was Hazard’s receive, turn and shoot from the final third that was parried by Foster and Morata waiting in the box to push the rebound in.
Hazard (circled red) dropped deep along with Morata (circled yellow). West Bromwich’s defense was not really sure if they could maintain distance or go high-line and stay tight with Chelsea’s front two.
Before the defenders went tight or retreated, Fabregas spots the opportunity to play Morata, who flicks it on first-touch as he knew without even looking back, to put the Belgian 1v1 with the goalkeeper, 0–2!
The third man:
This is probably what Conte’s 3–5–2 is all about, an additional midfielder instead of a man in the forward line in the form of Pedro or Willian. Bakayoko has been deployed as the destroyer in the midfield trio alongside Fabregas & Kante but his role isn’t limited to throwing tackles, out-muscling the opponent and adding energy to the midfield.
With Hazard being pulled back to help build-up, the former Ligue 1 champion pushes up to position himself alongside Morata almost as another forward.
Here’s another example in the game against West Bromwich:
Here, Fabregas is on the ball after a quick link-up play with Hazard (circled red). The Belgian is positioned deep in midfield to help Chelsea create and Bakayoko (circled yellow) doesn’t think twice to push forward and become the additional attacker.
If the young Frenchman can improve this particular aspect of his game, then it is going to be a pleasant surprise for the Blues to have a central-midfielder on the score-sheet more often than not.
However with the impressive performances of Drinkwater on his return, the third midfielder position is there for the taking and Bakayoko really needs to up his game to compete. In terms of fitment, you might wonder if Bakayoko could be slightly better off given that he can go forward more comfortably as compared to Drinkwater who is rather a more defensive option.
La Roja- The new core of Chelsea?
It looks like Alvaro Morata isn’t the only Spaniard to have made a mark in the current campaign for Chelsea but ever since the revelation of the 3–5–2, Cesc Fabregas has really picked himself up and hit a purple patch. The most obvious reason for this has been the reduced defensive load on him with the additional midfielder being slotted next to him and Kante. Be it Bakayoko or Drinkwater, the Chelsea midfield looks to be an almost perfect combination of steel & silk.
It looks like Alvaro Morata isn’t the only Spaniard to have made a mark in the current campaign for Chelsea but ever since the revelation of the 3–5–2, Cesc Fabregas has really picked himself up and hit a purple patch. The most obvious reason for this has been the reduced defensive load on him with the additional midfielder being slotted next to him and Kante. Be it Bakayoko or Drinkwater, the Chelsea midfield looks to be an almost perfect combination of steel & silk.
Another Spaniard who has been on top form is none other than Cesar Azpilicueta. In the recent months, his telepathic connection with his fellow country-man Morata has helped him silence the criticism about his ability to go forward, bagging up to 5 assists in the process.
The goal constructed by the Spanish duo against Manchester United is a memorable one and this example is from the game against Newcastle United when the Blues triumphed 3–1.
As you may see, the trio of Fabregas, Hazard and Moses (red triangle) overload the right side and as a result occupy all of Newcastle’s defenders on that flank, allowing space for Azpilicueta to charge forward. An additional midfielder in Kante means that any Newcastle player who wants to step out and close down Azpilicueta might risk leaving his man in a more dangerous zone, free from being marked.
The overload on the right to allow him space has become a pattern and the Blues have executed it to perfection numerous times out of which at least 4 times, Conte’s men have found the back of the net.
Conclusion:
Apart from all of the above mentioned routes that can be taken, the Blues have also been venomous breaking away on the counter with the front two. With the 3–4–3, there were occasions where Morata would be left without support as both wingers would have tracked back to defend. With the 3–5–2, Morata & Hazard always one another to support and an adding to it is the freedom Fabregas enjoys with the defensive duties shared among 2 other midfielders. This has allowed him to quickly get to positions from where he releases the front two with his sublime passing range.
“Attack wins you games while defence wins you titles.”
A quote that will ever be applicable in football, no matter how much the game changes. So don’t miss to check out how the Blues defend with Antonio “Catenaccio” Conte The 3–5–2: How do Chelsea defend?
Images source:
www.fullmatchreplay.com
www.this11.com
www.squawka.com
www.metro.co.uk
