Chelsea: Reece James doing his part to reshape the lineup and formation

Reece James has helped shift the balance of Chelsea’s attack from the left side to the right. His place in the XI has caused a series of effects across the pitch.

Reece James’ crossing abilities have given Chelsea a new offensive threat from the right side and the fullback position. An unexplored consequence of James’ rise has been the indirect effect it has had on the fullback rotation and the overall balance of the attack. The oversimplified version is that James has displaced Cesar Azpilicueta at right back, and since Azpilicueta is better than Marcos Alonso and Emerson at left-back, Azpilicueta has shifted to the left. But another factor could be that James satisfies Frank Lampard’s offensive needs from the fullbacks.

Most teams play some form of lopsided / asymmetric formation with their wingers and fullbacks. Liverpool are one of the exceptions, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson combining for 15 assists this season. But Liverpool are exceptional.

Chelsea, like most teams, have one more attacking-minded fullback and the other is more defensively-inclined.

Last season, those roles were Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta, respectively, with the offence coming from Alonso on the left. This obviously supported Chelsea’s top offensive player, Eden Hazard, who played mostly on the left. While Alonso and Hazard did not have the rapport in the last two seasons that they had in 2016/17, their presence on the left supported most of the Blues’ attack. On the right, Cesar Azpilicueta played behind Willian, who was much more diligent in tracking back and defending than Hazard, making this Chelsea’s more protected side.

Eden Hazard’s departure was the first blow to the offensive prowess of Chelsea’s left. Marcos Alonso’s drop in performance and seemingly loss of favour under Frank Lampard was another.

Emerson could not reproduce any of Alonso’s offence – not the crosses, not the movement into the box, not the shooting, not the free kicks, none of it. This cast Azpilicueta as the most offensive of the fullbacks, something he receives little credit for but, as we wrote about recently, is well within his skill set. Since Chelsea had no other options at right back for the first half of the season, they needed Azpilicueta to play there, making the right side the more offensive side.

With James available, Chelsea have a true offensive fullback. Because he plays right back, if he is in the lineup the right side necessarily becomes the more offensive side.

This minimizes, if not eliminates the need, to have an offensive option like Marcos Alonso on the left. If anything, despite James’ excellent defensive abilities, his presence on the right calls out for a more defensive fullback on the left to keep Chelsea “lopsided,” but also to keep the two sides of the pitch complementing each other. Because Chelsea have their offensive fullback on the right, they do not need an offensive fullback on the left, and would prefer a more defensive fullback. It’s not just the simple difference in quality between Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso – it’s how their individual attributes plug into the desired balance of play.

Against Newcastle, which perhaps should not be cited as an example of offensive anything (unless you mean like an offensive odour), Callum Hudson-Odoi played in front of James while Willian played on the left with Azpilicueta. This further flips the “asymmetry,” keeping the Azpilicueta-Willian pairing intact. Hudson-Odoi is closer to Willian than to Hazard in terms of diligent tracking back, but he is still the more direct and one-way of the two. The right side is the new left side when James is in the XI.

An interesting possibility would be if Frank Lampard ever plays a four-man defence with Marcos Alonso and Reece James at left and right back, respectively. This would be the most offensively-focussed fullback pairing he could put together, a la Liverpool, and would take away some of the balance in favour of a two-sided threat.

To pull this off, Lampard would need a more reliable centreback pairing than any of his recent ones, and he may choose to play N’Golo Kante in a deeper role to cover the defensive line. Between injuries, centreback shortcomings and Lampard’s preference for Kante on the attack, this seems highly unlikely. Just interesting.

Reece James’ injury against Newcastle will pull Azpilicueta back to the right and Emerson in on the left if James cannot play against Arsenal on Tuesday.

This is a familiar set-up for the Blues, but it represents one more way in which the lack of depth at fullback is hindering Lampard’s ability to get the club rolling consistently in his formation. However he wants this team to look, he needs more depth so he is not constantly mixing, matching, switching and reverting.

One player’s absence should not force a reshuffling that delays by one more matchweek the Blues’ progress towards their style of play.