Chelsea: Three lessons from Steve Holland’s “Masterclass” win over Barca

2. Ego-free “anti-football” works, and can be glorious

Chelsea’s starting XI was full of the best players to wear Blue across two decades. Petr Cech, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were the spine of Chelsea’s golden generation, from the first days of Jose Mourinho through Munich a month after defeating Barcelona. Joining them in the XI were the runners up and honourable mentions for the teams of the decades for the 2000s and 2010s: Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic and Juan Mata. Also there were two players who were really only appreciated when they were gone, but are now understood to be key figures in Chelsea’s success: Mikel John Obi and Ramires. Nothing against Raul Miereles, but he was the only player from that starting lineup to pass into relative obscurity.

And yet even with all this unmistakable talent and workrate, players who were already legends for club and country, Roberto di Matteo knew that Barcelona had more technical and tactical ability man-for-man across the pitch. Therefore he put the Blues in a defensive set-up that allowed them to control the game from a reactive position.

Steve Holland described Barcelona’s midfield “the best midfield trio that’s ever played”: Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Xavi. Up front were Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez and Lionel Messi. If Chelsea gave them any space, the outcome was foregone.

Holland explained how focus was on keeping very little space between the back-four and the midfield five. Mikel John Obi and Miereles stayed the tightest to the defence, paying particular attention to Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas dropping deep and to Chelsea’s left so Messi could come inside on his left foot.

The stats were the type that would get a “modern” manager filleted. Chelsea had 21% possession. Barcelona took 24 shots and put six on target to the Blues’ four total shots and one on target.

This was anti-football. It was a crime against football. It was suffering without the ball. It was all the crap we’ve heard for years from pundits and bloggers excoriating dinosaurs like Jose Mourinho and nouveau sauropods like Antonio Conte.

But Chelsea won 1-0. Their tactical preparation set them up perfectly for Ramires to run into space behind Dani Alves after Frank Lampard tackled the ball off Messi, and Drogba swept home the winner just before halftime. That was the knife’s edge di Matteo and Holland had their players ready to walk: they would be buffeted relentlessly for 90 minutes, but when they had the chance, it was literally one shot, one kill.

This is how a team can win a game against a team that is much better than them. Roberto di Matteo and those Blues had no issue making their tactics an acknowledgment of Barcelona’s better quality across the pitch. The individual egos and “philosophies” took a backseat, and that enabled the win.