Chelsea still relying on their opponents’ help to make Sarrismo work

Crystal Palace did the smart thing and let Chelsea pass themselves into a stupor. Roy Hodgson is taking the usual criticisms, but Chelsea have much more to answer for.

Roy Hodgson took the, shall we say, most efficient route to countering Chelsea’s toddling Sarrismo. Rather than develop multi-pronged coverage schemes to block out Jorginho and force the wingers deep, or use Jorginho and David Luiz against themselves to create long diagonal passes to the fallow parts of the wing, Crystal Palace ushered the ball back towards Jorginho before retreating into their 4-4-2 block. From there they let Chelsea leisurely pass and march the ball upfield, until the Blues encountered that block head on. That’s when the party stopped, if it ever got started

This is barely an exaggeration of Crystal Place’s non-pressing scheme. On the few occasions Crystal Palace were in a position to turnover position to the Blues in Chelsea’s half, they did not even make symbolic attempts to recover the ball. The Palace defenders and midfielders rushed back to their two lines of four much faster than Chelsea’s wingers or attacking midfielder penetrated those areas.

Crystal Palace knew the biggest danger they faced from the Blues was a fast, incisive counter-attack. Hodgson certainly feared the prospect of the ball going from Antonio Rudiger to David Luiz to Eden Hazard to the back of Vicente Guaita’s net in under 12 seconds. He much less worry about the Blues pulling his defenders from side to side to create space they could exploit with a run in behind to latch onto a low cross or through-ball.

Hodgson was right. Letting Jorginho have the ball early in the build up sentenced Chelsea to passing circuits that were predictable both in their timing and direction.

Jorginho telegraphs the direction of his passes, and rarely varies the his time on the ball or the speed or angle of the pass. Because he parks himself so squarely in the centre of the pitch he does not give himself the opportunity to switch the play, something Marcos Alonso does far more and far better than any other Blue.

The result? The usual. Crystal Palace could maintain their 4-4-2 with textbook rigidity because Chelsea obligingly passed around their perimeter. The wingers did not make runs through or behind the defensive line, allowing the Palace defenders to safely stay put.

The one time a Chelsea player did make a well-disguised run to get in behind and latch on to a pass, the runner was not a forward and the pass was not from the highly-touted regista. It was N’Golo Kante finishing a pass from David Luiz. That goal ensured that the final result of the game was another usual: a one-goal win against a bottom-half team.

Chelsea still rely too much on their opponents’ sense of adventure to execute their gameplan. Chelsea’s perfect opponent plays on the front foot, spreads their players across the pitch, plays a high defensive line of two centre-backs, presses aggressively and keeps their full backs not high enough to create offensive chances but not so deep as to actually defend their flanks. The Blues expect the opponent to keep open 60-80 yards of green space for long passes and quick runs.

Not too many opponents play like this, and fewer still would play against Chelsea like this. Liverpool comes to mind, but after what they did to Arsenal, let’s not think about how a game against them would go for the Blues.

No matter how much the anti-“anti-football” crowd decry Roy Hodgson for his tactics against Chelsea, anything else would be leading his eagles to slaughter. He knew what he could give his opponent and what he had to protect for himself. In Chelsea’s case, he knew that giving them the ball, the time and the first two-thirds worked much to his favour.

Like most bottom-half teams against top-six teams, Hodgson went with the plan that gave his club the best hope for a result: play for a scoreless draw, pray to nick a late winner, hope you don’t concede.

As often happens, particularly against Chelsea, it nearly worked. If the Blues needed their box-to-box midfielder to make a run in behind the lines to score a goal assisted by a centre-back, then the contours of Hodgson’s tactics were spot on. The depth of quality Chelsea have allowed them to find this untraditional link-up, made even more untraditional by N’Golo Kante as that box-to-box midfielder.

Chelsea’s only escape from their plateau in form, results and the table is reaching the point where they no longer need anything from their opponent to execute Maurizio Sarri’s vision. They have to be able to deform low blocks. For example, pull the play vertically to create space for the attacking midfielders and inverted wingers. Or drag the opponent horizontally to create space for the wingers to run in behind and for the strikers to find a gap to receive a cross. The forwards, of course, have to actually make those runs and move into the space the defenders and midfielders create.

Crystal Palace gave Chelsea two-thirds of the pitch to go with two-thirds of the ball. Chelsea have to find their own ways to make the final third their own. They cannot expect their opponent to sacrifice everything for their beautiful football.