Chelsea need N’Golo Kante to cover spaces created by this aggressive 3-4-3

Frank Lampard’s aggressive version of the 3-4-3 leaves a large space between the midfielders and centrebacks. N’Golo Kante is the only current Chelsea player who can handle that responsibility, but it would entail him returning to the position Lampard has seemingly ruled out.

At some point, people will stop wondering if and hoping that Frank Lampard will play more pragmatically or defensively against objectively better opponents. If he did not make such an adjustment to face Bayern Munich, it’s hard to see him doing it for any team, foreign or domestic.

Chelsea fielded the same starting XI in the same formation against Bayern Munich as they did against Tottenham. When they won against Spurs, Cesar Azpilicueta gave the formation its fluidity between phases of the game: on offence, he moved into midfield to connect Reece James, who was otherwise isolated on the right flank, with Ross Barkley in attacking midfield and anyone else Azpilicueta could move the ball to. With no one dropping deeper to cover Azpilicueta, this left the Blues with just the two centrebacks holding the defensive line in case of counter-attack.

Azpilicueta played even more aggressively against Bayern Munich. Several times he joined Chelsea’s press, bringing the Blues up to five players in Bayern’s half, hoping that a 5v4 overload on the press would win them the ball before Bayern could spring a counter that would be a 5v4 (or worse) of their own.

This meant that Azpilicueta was only on the back line in one stage of the game: defending. Given the speed of Bayern’s counter-attack and transitions, Azpilicueta was rarely with the centrebacks when Chelsea transitioned to defence; and in all stages of offence, including pressing, Azpilicueta was amongst the midfielders.

On one level, this is a sound strategy and consistent with a bumper sticker description of Lampard’s approach. For the most part, he has seemed willing to accept a certain number of goals conceded as long as Chelsea can score more than they allow. Given the Blues’ defensive disorganization, the idea of simply keeping the opponent as far away from the goal as possible makes sense. If a 5-4-1 low block is no more reliable than a high defensive line with a four- or five-man press, why invite the opponent into your defensive third if you can try to pin them in theirs?

In practice, though, against a team like Bayern, this approach left the midfield wide open. With Azpilicueta pressing and connecting play like a midfielder, and with the central midfielders already inclined (and instructed) to stay high up the pitch and contribute to the attack, the Blues had a large gap between their defensive and midfield lines.

The 3-4-3 came to resemble Liverpool’s 2-5-3. Obviously, neither Andreas Christensen nor Antonio Rudiger is Virgil van Dijk. But the Blues’ could still make this set-up work if they had a player in midfield who could cover the space Azpilicueta left behind in front of the centrebacks.

Andreas Christensen was a wide-ranging sweeper against Tottenham and Bayern Munich. He frequently ran into the right centreback’s nominal territory to clear long balls, make tackles and otherwise do the work of two centrebacks. Both he and Rudiger regularly charged forward onto the shoulder of Bayern Munich’s forwards and midfielders who were trying to bring down long balls with their backs to goal, again trying to keep the play as far away from Chelsea’s defensive third as possible, even at the expense of allowing space behind them.

Every time a centreback ran off the centre of the defensive line, it was a zero sum game. Since they couldn’t be in two places at once, they had to surrender one part of the pitch or the other. This leads to the occasional wrong decision and the opponent’s ability to manipulate the centrebacks, as Bayern did throughout the second half.

Chelsea need a third player who can be that swing defender in the spaces vacated by the full-backs or outside centreback.

Liverpool have Fabinho. Manchester City have Fernandinho. These players allow the central defenders to defend centrally by minimizing the number of balls and players who reach the centrebacks either up the middle or through an outside channel.

N’Golo Kante is the only current Blue who could fill this role, and obviously he is injured. If he was fit, there would still be the question of whether Lampard would countenance Kante in a more defensive capacity, as Lampard has seemed unwilling to take Kante out of the attack. However, Lampard has so far only used this version of the 3-4-3 without Kante. Against Tottenham, it seemed to be a good way of clogging the midfield with players: using the many to compensate for the absence of the one. Against Bayern, though, the deficiency was far too apparent, both in transition and on defence.

Kante does not have the aerial presence that Fabinho and Fernandinho have, which might limit his direct transfer into that role. If Chelsea continue to press high with five players, a long outlet pass is an effective way for the opponent to move upfield. However, with Chelsea’s centrebacks already being willing to defend aerials off the backs of their opponents, they could just as easily come up alongside Kante to bring those balls down in his stead. He, then, can cover their deeper position or recover the second ball.

Lampard obviously sees something in this current 3-4-3 that he has not seen in his previous lineups and formations. The few times he has mixed up his tactics or starting XI’s earlier in the season were one-off’s. Or, when he used the 3-4-3 against Tottenham and then Southampton in December, the second game was significantly less threatening than the first.

Staying with the 3-4-3 and making it more aggressive against a vastly better opponent suggests Lampard sees a future in this approach.

N’Golo Kante’s absence is always noticeable in the Chelsea side, and he seems to be the missing piece of a system that Lampard has been moving towards all season.