Chelsea tactical review: Inviting the danger they only sometimes withstand

Chelsea had the right players, tactics and mindset for the first 70 minutes of their de facto knockout game against Lille. By not changing anything for the remaining 20 minutes of protecting a lead – first two goals, then one goal – they nearly lost their place in the Round of 16.

Most of Chelsea’s Tuesday night at Stamford Bridge went perfectly to plan. The Blues did more than control possession – they controlled the pressure on Lille, using their time on the ball purposefully to create chances and not get bogged down in cyclical passing. They had a 2-0 lead at halftime and well into the second half, and Lille seemed obliging in playing their role as the team with nothing to gain or lose.

The midfield trio of Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic were the perfect battery to maintain possession. Kante and Kovacic took turns in the press, with the other always popping up on Lille’s outlet man for a quick dispossession and a forward pass to put Chelsea back in control. Kante, of course, would press a centreback, tackle the ball from a midfielder 30 yards away and then make a run behind Lille’s defensive line all in one quick, uninterrupted sequence. Jorginho stayed deep for most of the press, but chose his moments perfectly to dart forward and steal the ball from Lille player who tried to receive a pass in the middle of the pitch. He read Lille’s passing as well as most Premier League opponents read his, allowing him to intercept or cut off numerous Lille attempts to play through midfield.

Had Lille wanted to, they were only one long ball over the top from driving in on two very exposed Chelsea centrebacks, one of whom was playing in his first game since September. Lille completed only eight long passes: only four went from their defensive half into their offensive half. Of the other four, two were backpasses to their goalkeeper.

Part of Lille’s apparent lack of interest in outlet passes was the lack of an outlet. Neither Jonathan Bamba nor Victor Osimhen were in the starting XI, and Osimhen stayed on the bench the entire game. Bamba leads Lille with shots from counter-attacks, and Osimhen has the most goals from counter-attacks.

Loic Remy was not a fast, run-onto-the-ball striker in his time at Chelsea (disclosure: we’re still not sure what kind of striker he was in his time at Chelsea), and he certainly is not one now at age 32. Lille’s three attacking midfielders at Stamford Bridge – Yusuf Yazici, Luis Araujo and Thiago Maia – have combined for three shots and one goal from counter-attacks in their entire Ligue 1 campaign thus far.

Bamba came on in the 66′ and assisted on Loic Remy’s goal 12 minutes later. But more than any changes Lille made, the lack of significant changes from Chelsea most imperiled the Blues.

With a two-goal lead with 30 minutes remaining, Chelsea were still playing for the third goal. OK, no problem there. With 20 minutes remaining and a two-goal lead, Chelsea were still playing for the third goal. Not the worst thing – this is a young, energetic team that had been playing comfortably and confidently the whole night. Let them have their fun.

With under 10 minutes remaining, a one-goal lead and a fresh reminder of just how easily they concede goals out of nothing and against the run of play, Chelsea were still playing as they did with 20, 30, 45, 60 and 90 minutes remaining.

They were still attacking space and then looking for passing lanes into the box. N’Golo Kante was still making runs forward, and both full-backs were still closer to their wingers than their centrebacks. At most one midfielder would stay closer to Chelsea’s defensive line than Lille’s.

Their final substitution after going down a goal was attacking: Mason Mount for Mateo Kovacic. They made no attempt to slow down play, protect possession or secure a 2-1 win. They pursued a 3-1 win at the risk of a 2-2 loss (not a typo).

In the 88′ minute, Cesar Azpilicueta was deep in Lille’s box, trying to pull down a blocked Willian cross and head it to Michy Batshuayi in the centre. Chelsea’s most defensively sturdy full-back was behind the opponent’s defensive lines. Jorginho, the deep-lying midfielder, was running into the box calling for a pass from Batshuayi. N’Golo Kante, the best defensive midfielder on the team and one of the best in Europe, was five yards outside Lille’s box.

Lille had six players defending in their box and one marking Kante just outside, which would have left three – including Jonathan Bamba and Renato Sanches – to attack some arrangement of Kurt Zouma, Antonio Rudiger, Mateo Kovacic and maybe Emerson, if he had pinched over to cover.

That was potentially Chelsea’s chance to defend their Europa League title.

Only in stoppage time did Chelsea adjust, with Willian for the first time dribbling the ball in a little patch along the touchline 15 yards from the end line. N’Golo Kante came near him in support, and the two slowed down Chelsea’s tempo to take some minutes off the clock.

Even so, the final action of the game was Chelsea trying to connect a few passes up the left side of centre to send Michy Batshuayi into the box. The Blues still had at least eight players in Lille’s half for that sequence.

Chelsea’s philosophy since the start of the season has been to score more goals than they allow, and to score plenty because they expect to concede a few. They are seemingly taking this to an extreme, responding to a late concession by trying to score another to restore the two-goal margin rather than doing whatever it takes to secure a one-goal win.

A team can shut down a game at either end of the pitch. Parking the bus is one way for a more defensive-minded team. If Frank Lampard thinks it is too risky to have the ball and the opponent deep in his zone (a prudent fear), he can teach his players offensive zone s**thousery: using the body to stand guard over a stationary ball at the corner flag, time wasting on throw-ins, tippy-tappy keep-ball among three players in the corner. He has the players to do this in Willian, Kante, Azpilicueta and perhaps Kovacic and Mount.

Chelsea properly executed the right plan for most of the game against Lille. They continued to execute that plan quite well even after it was no longer the right one for the situation.

This time it only cost them a clean sheet, but the makings were there of another run of Thursday night games to start the new year.