Chelsea will face a seemingly familiar foe in Wolverhampton Wanderers. Their tactics look very much like Chelsea’s not too long ago.
Wolverhampton Wanderers shares a lot of similarities to Chelsea at a glance. Both clubs were bought by the incredibly rich who then invested heavily in revamping the clubs’ fortunes. Both hired tactically astute Portuguese managers who shaped the entire culture of the club in their image.
Tactically, the Wolves share a lot in common with Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. Nuno Espirito Santo came to England shortly after Conte did and had the same ideas as to how to conquer the leagues they were in.
Santo’s Wolves came up to the Premier League in high flying fashion. And like many clubs, they vowed to stick to the tactics that got them there. They have, and it started well, but lately they have been in a spiral. Some of the same issues that eventually plagued Conte’s Chelsea are plaguing the Wolves. But they can still be tricky opposition for the unprepared.
Part of why Wolverhampton has been successful has been the formation. Much like Conte’s Chelsea, the 3-4-3 formation confounded opposition at first. But eventually teams figured out how to cope with it and the 3-4-3 stuttered. Santo’s Wolves are suffering as much from that as the fact that Premier League clubs had two years of Conte’s 3-4-3 to prepare for Santo’s 3-4-3.
The overall set up is very much the same. Wolverhampton will look to play the ball to their wingbacks where they can then create an overload on the flank. Whereas Conte used this as a means to maintain possession before switching the play, Santo uses it to open up gaps for direct runs in behind.
Defensively, the side falls back into a familiar 5-4-1 as they look to keep the opponent’s attacks wide and in less dangerous areas. When they sense a chance, they pounce in numbers to win the ball back and look to quickly counter with the mass of space created by their lower block.
Their biggest strength is how often teams are still surprised by the number overloads in wide areas. Even teams prepared for a 3-4-3 are still often surprised by just how much space they allow the Wolves to attack through. Defensively, they will have more numbers to choke out possession of the opponent before they hit the counter.
But the weaknesses of the 3-4-3 remain. Chelsea’s 4-3-3 might struggle in wider areas, but they will have the numbers in the center. If the Blues play smart, they can stop Wolves from switching the play through the centermids simply because of the extra man. Furthermore, through balls that split the back five are traditionally more dangerous than they would be against a back four as more players sometimes means more room for error.
Chelsea should be ok on the whole given that they played in a very similar 3-4-3 for so much of the last two seasons. They will know both the strengths and weaknesses of the formation better than most. Additionally, Wolves will be without their key player Ruben Neves through suspension. That alone should give Chelsea plenty of hope in the match.
Wolves will prove a test for a rotated (hopefully) Chelsea lineup. But they are beatable if the Blues are considerate of their numbers on the flanks and the spaces Wolves will give between their players.