Against Tottenham Hotspur, Frank Lampard showed that his Plan B is real, and it’s spectacular. Now there is an extra sense of anticipation and, for the opponents, concern around Chelsea’s XI and formation.
Frank Lampard caught Jose Mourinho off-guard with his 3-4-3 on Sunday. Lampard explained his thinking after the game, noting that Tottenham likes to have two forwards make runs in behind the defence and, at the other end, defends quite compactly. Therefore, the extra centreback on defence and the wingbacks on offence helped Chelsea take the advantage on overloads on defence and control the size of the pitch and tempo of possession. By executing his first major tactical and personnel shift (come on, did anyone foresee Marcos Alonso returning as left wingback, let alone playing at the level he did?) in such a massive game against a manager like Mourinho, Lampard put his peers around the Premier League on notice.
After a several months of 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 with relatively minor variations and a few brief dips into the 3-4-3, Mourinho had the honour of facing Lampard’s most dramatic bespoke tactical plan. Chelsea’s opponents now need to wonder how far Frank Lampard will go to craft a custom-built solution to neutralize their team.
As Travis talks about in a nearby piece, Lampard will likely return to the 4-2-3-1 against Southampton. Ralph Hasenhuttl would probably agree with that assessment.
Unlike Tottenham, Southampton attacks straight up the middle, with a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 turning into a 4-2-2-2. This does not lend itself to runs behind the line, so Chelsea may not need the extra centreback at the expense of an attacker. With Southampton not having the rigor of a Mourinho-trained defence nor the defensive quality of Tottenham, the Blues may not need wingbacks to expand the play. The usual passing combinations among the fullbacks, wingers and midfields should be enough to create space in the penalty area.
Chelsea’s baseline XI and plan should be sufficient against Southampton both in terms of tactics and player quality. Hasenhuttl can enjoy his Christmas expecting he will “only” have to go up against Chelsea doing the things they did at St. Mary’s Stadium and in the dozen or so games the Saints have studied on film.
But in the back of his mind he will be wondering if Chelsea are going to do something specifically tailored for the Saints, either to neutralize them like-for-unlike as they did against Tottenham or match up against them like-for-like. The latter is particularly unlikely for the stronger team, but now all things are in play. And perhaps after the demands of the Tottenham game and Arsenal on the weekend, Lampard will rotate heavily and will mitigate the dip in quality by going for the like-for-like-matchup.
Hasenhuttl will have to wonder who might return to Lampard’s XI that they have not seen or planned for.
Marcos Alonso seemed halfway out the door before reclaiming his place as world’s best left wingback at Jose Mourinho’s expense. Will Cedric Soares have to deal with Alonso, Emerson or Cesar Azpilicueta coming at him in support of… which winger? Will it be a more traditional wide winger like Callum Hudson-Odoi or Willian, the latter playing freely on both sides and in the pocket as a No. 10? Or will it be Christian Pulisic or Mason Mount, both more likely to tuck inside, the former to drive into the box and the latter moving freely between the lines?
And if Alonso can return against Tottenham, what’s to say that Pedro won’t be in the mix against relegation-bait Southampton?
Or Olivier Giroud, for that matter. Giroud has more goals against Southampton than any other Premier League team: eight.
He scored a brace off the bench to bring Chelsea back from 2-0 to win 3-2. In that game, Antonio Conte brought Giroud and Pedro on as a double substitution to shift from a 3-4-3 to a 4-2-3-1: two formations with which Frank Lampard’s Chelsea are now quite adept.
Nothing ends early success like predictability. It caught up to Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri, and, depending on your perspective, is taking its toll on Jose Mourinho.
As a new manager, Frank Lampard has the advantage of not being figured out. If he is able and willing to make the sort of overhauls he did against Tottenham and continually refresh and customize his lineup and tactics, he will go into every game with a bit of initiative as his opposite number wonders what lies in store.
And even if he does his usual, however defined, by the time his opponent recognizes that the Blues can already be in control of the game.