Chelsea face a manager fresh to his team in Claudio Ranieri. That makes planning a bit tricky as it is hard to tell where in the process the team is now.
Chelsea was briefly linked to a shock move for Slavisa Jokanovic over the summer. Some liked the idea as his brand of football is a pleasing one but others found it a step too far too soon. The latter group appears to have been right.
Fulham spent big upon their return to the Premier League. They spent so well, in fact, that many would not have been surprised had they pushed for a Europa League spot. But the reality was that they brought in too many players at once and the manager was perhaps too strict with playing the game “his way”. The Premier League has a funny way of turning the beautiful teams from the Championship into the prime relegation candidates.
Even still, it was somewhat surprising to see Fulham sack Jokanovic this early. But the Premier League takes no prisoners from those who fail to adapt to it. Fulham, for their part, brought in an excellent manager in the form of former Chelsea and Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri. The managerial swap makes things difficult to plan against for Maurizio Sarri.
Jokanovic tried to stick by his 4-3-3 when he came to the Premier League, but to stop the slide he started to mix things up. It may have been too little too late. Ranieri set the squad up in a 4-2-3-1 (which can be seen as a variant of the 4-3-3 or the 4-4-2) against Southampton and it worked well enough to see the side pull off a win. Ranieri likes to tinker with the squad but at this point it would be expected that he will stick with something defensively solid like a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-2.
Offensively, Fulham’s game plan is likely to look similar to how it did under Jokanovic. Ranieri will focus on the defense first and until that is figured out the offense will remain similar to how it was. That means the wingers will look to receive the ball before bursting down the flank. At that point they will either cut in or cross before dropping back off.
Defensively, the side is probably going to look a lot like Ranieri’s Leicester City. They will not worry too much about possession as they sit deep and compact and look for certain players to press aggressively while others maintain their spot. Because they will cede possession, their wingers will be given a lot of space to run into if they win the ball back.
Their biggest strength and weakness will be the same: they are stuck between too systems right now. Jokanovic’s shadow will loom at the club for months to come as Ranieri looks to shape the squad in his image. They will likely look uneven tactically at times which is sure to cost them a few points.
But it also makes them very hard to plan against. Sarri will not be unfamiliar with Ranieri’s work, but this will not be Ranieri’s team alone. So if Sarri plans for a defensive, counter attacking team like Leicester was, he might be caught off guard by a possession based attack from the spirit of Jokanovic.
Fulham is a wildcard right now because the manager they had a few weeks ago is very different than the manager they have now. They have a solid squad that can hurt Chelsea but whether they have the framework to do so is another question. Chelsea will need to be mentally on to bring themselves over the line in this one.