Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has his first shot at silverware against a team that beat his side senseless. To win, the Blues must be smarter than before.
Pep Guardiola’s tactics has already been talked about twice this season. He likes “W’s” and “M’s” and mixing them around to change how his side uses the width and depth of the pitch as needed. In an unfortunately titled article given what was to come, ways to beat Guardiola’s side were looked at.
But really, what this League Cup final is going to come down to is how smart Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri choose to be. In the first match, they choose wisely. In the second match they choose poorly. All while keeping in mind that regardless of what Chelsea does, Guardiola is likely going to have a solution to it.
The first match was a tactical victory for Sarri because of two reasons. The first is he took Eden Hazard from the flank and put him into the striker spot. This allowed Sarri to get both Willian and Pedro in to defend the flanks while also getting the less defensive Hazard out of the way (for lack of a better term). The second reason was because Sarri was not afraid to let his side sacrifice possession.
Sarrismo as a tactic requires quick and vertical passing. Quick passing is just a matter of the right training and consistency. But the vertical side can be forced and created. By sitting deeper, Chelsea tempted City into their high press. This left a ton of space behind for Hazard and friends to use in an attack. That was also what Chelsea was used as Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho had Chelsea play similarly.
It was still Sarri’s style, but the deeper defense allowed Chelsea to use old tools once again. It worked wonders and that is why it was extremely surprising that Sarri opted to forsake all that in round two.
The second match against City was after Gonzalo Higuain had arrived, so there was little chance of him being dropped to move Hazard out of the way. Instead, Sarri opted to treat City like Huddersfield. The defensive line was kept extremely narrow (as it mostly always is) and the wingers were tasked with coming back as needed.
It was a disaster. Hazard had to basically defend the flank by himself as Ross Barkley pressed high with Higuain and Marcos Alonso tucked into David Luiz. City love finding space on the flank and Sarri practically handed it to them because of how he set the side up. Once the left side was compromised, the right side shifted to help, which only left the right exposed. The midfield’s pressing also saw them all pulled to one side, which just exposed Luiz and Antonio Rudiger directly. In short, no matter what Chelsea did, their tactics left them wide open to City.
Frankly, that is not going to cut it for a cup final with Sarri’s job on the line. It is understandable that he is going to want to play both Hazard and Higuain and keep his defense narrow like normal. But City blew through Chelsea because of it last time. Is it simply a matter of execution? That is debatable.
Chelsea must play smarter than that to win. The defense does not need to go from sideline to sideline but they also do not need to be tripping over each other. The midfield cannot all get sucked into one area because that is what Guardiola wants. A small adjustment to defend the left side better would be to have Hazard press with Higuain and have Mateo Kovacic behind slide over for the 4-4-2 block Sarri wants.
But no matter what plan Sarri puts into place, it will only work for about 15 minutes. Guardiola will constantly adjust how his side attacks and where they attack. If Sarri has instilled the right set up to his side, the Blues can do this. But not if they play as stupidly as last time. If Sarri wants to keep his job, he will need to show something more than that or this could turn into another blood bath.