Chelsea Under Tuchel: Revived
2020/21 looked as if it was going to be a big campaign for the Blues. They spent huge amounts of money in the summer, bringing in some star names. However, Frank Lampard wasn’t the man for the job, leaving the club in 9th when he was sacked in late January. Now, with Tuchel at the helm, that original vision has been restored.
Although it’s still early days, the signs have been promising for Tuchel’s Chelsea. If anything, maybe it’s been a case of “not Lampard”. The quality in the Blues’ squad was never in doubt, and Tuchel has got them playing to their ability. While a lot of their success has most likely come from a freshness around the ground, Tuchel has certainly left his mark on the side.
The improvement in such a short space of time has been astonishing. Since Tuchel took charge, only Manchester City have gained more points in the Premier League than Chelsea. They’re unbeaten in 10 league games under the new boss.
This form can largely be attributed to their defensive turnaround. Prior to Tuchel’s arrival Chelsea were conceding an average of 1.01 expected goals against (xGA) per game. This is good. Under Tuchel, they’ve been elite.
They have conceded an average xGA of just 0.44 per match. This has comfortably been the best in the league since Tuchel’s arrival. While Chelsea haven’t been hugely impressive offensively, many of their defensive performances against the bigger sides in the league have been outstanding. They limit big chances incredibly effectively.
How They’ve Lined up
Tuchel has made a rather drastic early change in terms of formation. Very often, managers prefer to stick with what their squad already knows, at least during their settling in period. The German hasn’t. Immediately, he switched to play a three at the back, recognizing that it would get the most out of his players.
The 3-4-2-1 that Chelsea are currently operating with seems to fit their personnel far better than Lampard’s 4-3-3. This change shows purpose from Tuchel.
Although he has heavily rotated the team in these early stages, these are the players who have lined-up most frequently. Particularly up front, it seems Tuchel is yet to decide on his strongest arrangement.
He seems to prefer a bigger striker. Both Giroud and Abraham have featured heavily in this role. However, Werner was used recently in a win against Liverpool and was effective at breaking in behind. The rest of the team has been fairly stable. Defensively in particular, I think Tuchel has recognized that this shape gets the best out of his squad.
Both James and Chilwell (and Alonso when he plays) are dangerous attacking full-backs. It makes sense to employ them higher up the field. From there, they can pose more of a threat. It also means that they have more cover in behind them and therefore more license to roam forward and a greater margin for error.
Looking at some of Chelsea’s center-backs you could also say they’re more suited to playing in a back three. Azpilicueta is certainly someone who relishes playing as a central defender but his ability on the ball and his lack of height mean he’s better in a sort of hybrid center-back/full-back role. Christensen and Thiago Silva are also players who fit better into a three given their ball playing ability at the back.
This system allows the wing-backs to provide the width. Chelsea’s wingers are all players who like to sit centrally. Think of Werner, Ziyech, Mount, Pulisic, Havertz: players who prefer to come inside into central positions. This system allows them to play in behind the striker, rather than as typical wide players.
Therefore, Chelsea’s attacking players are being used in their most effective roles.
As you can see, James and Chilwell are able to pose a considerable attacking threat in the wide areas through their crossing ability. At the same time, Chelsea’s attackers are in dangerous positions. Tuchel would much rather have them in and around the box rather than out wide.
From a positional standpoint this makes sense. Tuchel is operating with the formation that gets the most out of his players. Simply by playing them in their favoured roles, Tuchel has achieved success so far. However, there is far more behind this formation.
Chelsea in Possession
Up to this point, the main focus has been on ball retention. This was always expected when hiring Tuchel. Both his Dortmund and PSG sides of the past few years were excellent when it came to possession. This trend is continuing at Chelsea.
In four of Chelsea’s last six Premier League matches the Blues have kept more than 60% of the ball. Their opponents barely get a touch. However, I see this much more as a mechanism of defence over anything else.
They don’t actually create many chances. When they do, a lot of these come from counter-attacking situations, or plays from within their own half. This is fascinating. Typically when you see such a possession dominant side you would expect many of their goals to come from long built up spells in the opposition half. Chelsea though, seem a much better attacking unit when attacking quickly.
The image above comes from Chelsea’s match against Sheffield United. In this game, Chelsea kept 69% of the ball. However, perhaps Chelsea’s best chance of the match came from this situation: a long ball played over the top.
For such a patient and measured outfit, it was a simple long pass that led to their best opportunity. You can see this time and time again when looking at Chelsea’s recent matches. Games against Everton and Liverpool immediately spring to mind, with massive chances being created on the break or from direct situations.
Chelsea are just simply incredibly selective when it comes to playing like this. They spend much of the match playing simple short passes. You have to wonder if this is an intentional strategic move from Tuchel in order to specifically target his side’s defence.
When they came up against Liverpool they certainly operated differently. During this bad run of league form that Liverpool are going through, Tuchel was able to identify their weaknesses expertly and exploit them on route to a victory.
Moving Werner up top in this match typified the change in style. Giroud and Abrham were both left out in this match, allowing Werner to operate as the central striker for one of the first times under Tuchel. It’s safe to say that it was a successful experiment.
Werner was able to consistently expose Liverpool’s high line. As a pacey striker who is known for his intelligent movement, Werner had one of his best games yet in a Chelsea shirt. He was rather unlucky to have a goal disallowed for offside in the first half and he put in a good overall performance, taking 3 shots in the process.
In this match, Chelsea kept just 46% of the possession. However, they created a number of big chances on the break, including Mason Mount’s goal. This was the first time that we really got to witness Tuchel fully embracing a counter-attacking mentality. Every time they went long they were finding successful passes. The running of both Mount and Werner drove Chelsea forward in this match.
Above is the situation that led to Chelsea’s only goal of the match. Mount’s position is crucial. Although he is playing in that left-attacking midfield role, he darts beyond Werner in order to be the furthest Chelsea man forward. This was a critical feature of this match, and has been in general under Tuchel.
What separates this match from the others is the situation that led to this point. Although he’s not in your picture, Kante is the player who originally played this ball. The pace at which Chelsea looked to move the ball forward was surprising. Almost as soon as he had picked it up, he was booting it down the other end for Mount to run onto. He only took a slight look before playing it into space.
This is contrary to what we had previously seen from Tuchel’s outfit. He recognized that Liverpool had been struggling to break down deeper-lying defences, and thus transformed his defence into one. He also chose to maintain his side's attacking structure in order to remain potent.
As you can see from the two images above, Chelsea’s attacking midfield players positioned themselves in a way that would allow them to get in behind Liverpool’s attacking full-backs on the break throughout the match. This created strong numerical advantages in advanced positions.
Both when playing on the break, and when controlling the ball, Chelsea have focused heavily on getting their attacking midfielders into central attacking roles. This is understandable given their quality in this area. Tuchel has centered his formation and tactical gameplan around this ideology.
In this Liverpool match, it was interesting to see that Tuchel does have what it takes to mix things up tactically. This could be crucial in bigger matches. Although you would largely expect Tuchel to stick to his core tactical principles, he has shown that he has the capacity to make alterations where required.
In general, Chelsea’s play will be built around possession. Their wing-backs spread the play with a focus on getting attacking numbers into dangerous central positions. The central midfielders act as stable defensive and passing outlets. The attacking midfielders are required to be mobile and energetic in behind a typically bigger target man.
Chelsea at the Back
Success under Tuchel has stemmed from defence. Whatever you make of their attacking threat, there’s no questioning their defensive solidity as of late. Like mentioned earlier, they have been the best defensive team in the league bar none since the German’s arrival.
While it may sound simple, much of this has to do with their conservative approach. A big part of this is possession. When a team retains as much of the ball as Chelsea are currently doing, it’s simply going to be difficult for the opposition to create. They just don’t have as much time on the ball. This is something that Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have been doing for years now. The opposition rarely create opportunities. They just don’t have a chance to build up attacking momentum.
Chelsea’s attacking structure also lends itself well to maintaining defensive solidity. Chelsea tend not to commit too many men forward.
Even here, in the situation that led to Chelsea’s first goal against Everton, they are playing conservatively. Alonso commits from wing-back but no one else steps up to join the three main attackers. This is something that we’ve seen consistently from Chelsea under Tuchel.
Both central midfield players maintain reserved positions. Jorginho and Kante naturally prefer deeper roles. Kante is a box-to-box player, but he strives on his defensive grit. Jorginho is much more comfortable when he is able to distribute and control possession from deep.
This might be a reason as to why we haven’t seen much of Kovacic yet under Tuchel. This midfield balance has been crucial. While it has perhaps limited their attacking creativity, it provides them with a solid defensive base on which they can rely.
The wing-backs also contribute to this. As can be seen from the earlier image above, only one of the wing-backs commit themselves forward. Again, this maintains the balance of the side. Depending on which side Chelsea are attacking on, one wing-back will spring forward to provide width.
Again here, Chelsea only commit one of their full-backs to the attack. In this situation, they are breaking out of defence, with four offensive players making runs in behind Everton’s backline. While this sort of attacking play is interesting, the thing to observe here is the structure of Chelsea’s side.
Both right-wingback Reece James and the two central midfielders maintain incredibly reserved positions. The players who attack push intensely but the others are required to give the side a defensive shield.
This is clearly a tactical ploy from Tuchel to try and get his side from conceding chances on the break. Teams like Manchester City have been struggling with this for years, leaving themselves far too open at the back. Tuchel has made sure that this hasn’t been the case.
All in all, Tuchel has had one of the greatest starts as a manager to Premier League life as we’ve seen in a while. The consistency that his Chelsea side have shown early on has been phenomenal. Obviously, there is a lot to work on. Offensively, we’re still yet to see a truly dynamic outfit.
Tuchel is also struggling to get the best out of some of his star youngsters. However, after progressing in the Champions League this week against an Atletico side sat top of La Liga, the signs are promising. This conservative, possession-based style is working wonders at the moment, and Chelsea are in their best form of the last few years.
Chelsea fans will be eagerly anticipating the rest of the season. With a clear route to a Champions League semi-final as well as an increasingly positive hope of finishing in the Premier League top four, Tuchel truly has revived Chelsea.
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