Chelsea talking tactics: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer does not know either

Chelsea hosts Manchester United in a huge battle for Champions League. It is tricky as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer does not seem to know his tactics either.

When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer first arrived at Manchester United, his tactics were inspired in their simplicity. He simply took the club back to the basics and let the players make their own tactical decisions and it worked. That type of decision making on the pitch is not uncommon with the youngest crop of up and coming managers.

But then it just seemingly stopped working. The players got in each other’s ways. The club would revert to Jose Mourinho like tactics one game and look like an old Sir Alex Ferguson team the next. The longer Solskjaer remained, the clearer it became that even he had no idea how to get the squad into a consistent pattern of play.

That does not mean United is not dangerous however. If nothing else, Solskjaer has made United a true mystery on the pitch meaning they can never be under estimated. They may be injury ravaged, but Frank Lampard and company cannot take a chance on it being one of their bad days. Indeed, United has really only had good days against Chelsea with Solskjaer.

As mentioned before, many of the game’s youngest managers all take up a similar tactical idea and Solskjaer is no different (nor is Lampard). United will primarily set up in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 hybrid depending on which three midfielders are selected.

Offensively, their game plan is very similar to Chelsea’s. The wide players will all push up as the ball is played down the flank. A winger usually cuts in whereas with Chelsea they tuck in to create a rotation. And the midfield remains in support of all forward movement.

Defensively, the issues can be similar but it really depends on which United turns up. Some days United parks the bus and counters constantly as if Mourinho never left. Other days they try to be more aggressive and go at the opponent which leaves them open in behind. The former has been a tried and true method against Chelsea and is probably the one Solskjaer will go with.

But again, this is all a bit of a roll of the dice. Solskjaer seemingly has only a moderate amount of control over which United turns up, at best. For whatever reason, sometimes his team just will not click and that is when they slip up. Then they will bring it all together for a great performance only to falter again not long afterwards.

If Chelsea is to get a good result, it will be less about who is the aggressive team and who is the passive team and more about who has control over proceedings. Mourinho was an expert at controlling games without the ball, so control does not equate to possession. Lampard needs his side to merely direct the flow as the protagonists.

If the Blues do so, Chelsea can finally get a result against United for the first time since it was a clash between Antonio Conte and Mourinho. That would create some much needed breathing room that the Blues could really use going into this rough patch of games.