Chelsea’s tweaks worked but what stays in place going forward?

Maurizio Sarri finally opted to make tactical tweaks for Chelsea’s big clash with Manchester City. Which ones will remain in place?

All week, Chelsea fans were split into two camps. Camp one said Maurizio Sarri needed no “plan B” and merely needed time to implement his tactics. Camp two said Sarri needed to start adapting to the league while he still can.

Camp two won out against Manchester City, but camp one will have much to be pleased about. A plan B never needed to be a massive tactical overhaul and a new philosophy. It needed only be tactical tweaks with in the same system to cope with recurrent issues. Sarri (finally) did that against Manchester City and the Blues would not have won had he rested on his laurels.

The most obvious change came up top at the striker role. Eden Hazard moved centrally as he had done at times under Antonio Conte (and more rarely under Jose Mourinho). The change was less about putting a “better” player in the striker role and more about putting a more defensively sound player in the left wing spot.

Hazard is many things, but “defensively sound” is not one of them. Sure, he will press and track back from time to time but it is often more of an afterthought for him than a concrete effort. Meanwhile, Pedro and Willian are work horses who can support their fullbacks in a way that Hazard simply cannot.

So moving Hazard to the center helped to provide greater fullback support but it also allowed for a different style of pressing. Usually, Sarri’s team has two players press high as a line of four forms much deeper behind them. Against City, it started as two players pressing high before it morphed into a narrow 4-1 shape.

The point of this was not to stop, but slow City’s buildup play from the back. As Chelsea pressed their defense, N’Golo Kante and the defensive line could get into a good shape. By the time City finally was able to build through the press, the team was in a solid defensive shape.

The other big tactical tweak came in the form of Jorginho’s usage. Generally, Chelsea builds in a 3-4-3 shape with Jorginho in the midfield four. But against City, Jorginho dropped deeper, into the back three, just like he did at Napoli. This allowed Jorginho to be in a better spot to build up with lower pressure and it forced Chelsea to consider other options to pass forward.

So rather than funnel everything towards Jorginho like normal, Chelsea could play through others. This took away the focal point to mark out for Chelsea and allowed Jorginho to pull markers out of position for others to use.

Now the question is which of these tweaks remain in place going forward. Jorginho’s deeper usage was something he did at Napoli and it was already unusual for his role in buildup to have changed at Chelsea. That one should remain.

The different style of press may only show itself against tougher opponents like City who are more prone to building out from the back. The normal 4-4-2 press may be enough on most days, but the 4-1-4-1 press Chelsea used against City may be very useful against top opposition.

As for Hazard up top, it did provide a much greater balance to Chelsea. The tradeoff is Hazard becomes less effective. Still, against a team where Chelsea can maintain possession, Hazard may find himself flourishing in the role. It is at least worth trying out against a midtable team to see if Hazard can become more involved.

These small tweaks have been needed for weeks as the problems have become more evident. Sarri may have waited till the Manchester City game to make his changes, but he should continue to adapt to the league just like Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp did before him. He showed he can; now Sarri just needs to show he will continue to grow.