Chelsea goes away to Rennes for the Champions League. Will the real Rennes finally turn up in the competition or will they be their European norm?
Rennes is supposed to be a very good free flowing attacking team. Every player knows where they need to be in the sequence because they have been so well drilled in it. Off the ball, they are unafraid to stay compact and then attack like a wave when the ball is won back.
Except that isn’t the Rennes that has featured in this Champions League. Defensively they are still very sound, but they are also quite passive. Rather than being a wave crashing on a counter, they are a slow trickle. Their approach to this Champions League has been extremely cautious without any real reason to be. Even against Krasnodar this was the case.
Chelsea didn’t even get that much after a very dodgy red card early on in the reverse fixture. With three games done in the group, Rennes’ chances of advancing are all but gone. Even their Europa League spot isn’t a guarantee. They will need to do something to change the course of their campaign. The only question is whether they stick with their passive approach again or revert to their league progressiveness.
Eduardo Camavinga being available is going to be a big boost for the French side. In Ligue 1, he perfectly personifies the type of football Rennes wants to play. While on paper he is a central midfielder, it is not unusual for him to end up on the wing or in the box on an attack. He goes where the space and the need is which is what every player on Rennes generally does in the league.
In the Champions League, he has really been the only player doing those things. Maybe the plan was to not get embarrassed in an inaugural campaign, but it has been a bit like asking a bull to run a china shop; it just isn’t what they are meant to do. It is hard to tell if Rennes would have faired better playing “their way”, but they would have at least said they tried before going passive for passivity’s sake.
If Rennes shows up as they have in every other Champions League match, Chelsea need only lock down Camavinga to shut Rennes down. That is going to be harder than it seems given how much he likes to roam but somewhere between N’Golo Kante, Reece James, and Thiago Silva, the Blues should have the better of him.
Of course, this is all thrown out the window if Rennes looks at their one point from three games and decides to throw caution to the wind for the last three. The Blues should still have the better of the French side, but if Frank Lampard opts to rotate expecting an easy game, Chelsea may be put on to the back foot.
Burnley tried to press Chelsea and break the expected and it didn’t phase the Blues. If the club can keep that momentum and confidence up, it might not really matter what Rennes attempts.