Chelsea FC summer homework: Defenders
By George Perry
Gary Cahill: Positioning
Christy Fenwick and Giovanni Cera are down at the bottom of Chelsea’s management support staff page. This summer, Gary Cahill will need to keep them at the top of his contact list.
Fenwick and Cerra are Chelsea’s video analysis and tactical visualization team. Before Antonio Conte moves into his office at the club’s Cobham training grounds, Gary Cahill needs to have studied the footage from every team Conte has managed and every formation he has employed. The center-back will also need a full understanding of what went wrong and what he could have done better on each chance he surrendered in 2015/16.
Cahill needs to be able to sketch out every possible shift, maneuver and outlet pass for each of Conte’s formations: his trademark 3-5-2 and 4-2-3-1, the occasional 4-3-3 and even the 3-4-3 he deployed against Spain in March.
Amidst all the questions circulating around Antonio Conte’s formations, tactics and lineups when he arrives at Chelsea, one certainty is that he will demand rigorous discipline and implementation of his formations and tactics. Conte will not overlook errors or indiscipline just because things worked themselves out.
A defender who is out of position and gives up a shot on goal will not get a free pass just because he recovered quickly enough to clear the ball before a shot. Cahill, given his athletic limitations, does not have this luxury of futilely pleading “Well at least I got back in time.”
Given Chelsea’s current roster, Cahill is set to be the fulcrum of the Chelsea backline. Unless Chelsea acquires a center-back well-acquainted with Antonio Conte’s methods, Gary Cahill will be under enormous pressure to deliver for the club and his coach on the backline.
Time for him to park himself in front of the screen and spend many hours each day watching everything Fenwick and Cera can put together.
Next: Baba Rahman: Defending