Chelsea talking tactics: Leeds will provide toughest test since Liverpool

Chelsea has only lost once this season to Liverpool. Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds will provide the toughest test for Frank Lampard’s side since.

Thus far this season, the Blues have not been tactically outmatched by anyone. West Brom took advantage of massive individual mistakes, Southampton managed a comeback but falling behind as much as they did can’t be seen as a tactical victory, and Liverpool was mostly held even while it was 11 versus 11. In fact, the Blues have only lost to Liverpool this season (as technically a loss on penalties is a draw on paper). The winning run afterwards has never been truly tested.

Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds will change that. Critical as one might be about the man and the gaslighting narratives around him, his tactics are sound and he knows what he’s doing. One does not stay in the game as long as he has and inspire as many managers as he has without something going for him. It is not necessarily a tactical mismatch for Chelsea, but it is the kind of tactical set up that could lure Chelsea into overreacting and losing their control.

Bielsa is famous for his 3-3-1-3 and 3-1-3-3 shapes. While on paper it is still very much a 4-3-3 and one could call it a 3-4-3 in possession, it is hardly unusual for it to revert to one of Bielsa’s more unorthodox shapes. What is most dangerous about it, however, is that it doesn’t have to be the same player going to the same spot. Everyone on the team is able to or at least willing to fill in anywhere else to maintain the structure.

Everything Leeds does on and off the ball is done with intensity. When possession is won, they look to advance it as rapidly as they can up field. They won’t risk possession to do so like a Jurgen Klopp or Ralph Hasenhuttl side might, but the focus is to get the opponent back in their own box as quickly as possible.

Off the ball might be where they shine the most, at least in the Premier League when they are on the whole less skilled than most opponents by virtue of it being their first season back. Leeds press like mad men at almost every chance. Not only that, but they blend their press with what is basically a man marking system. And because the players are all well versed in playing wherever on the pitch they might end up, they are able to track their player or pass them off at any time. All this equates to little to no time on the ball for any player no matter how the shapes for either side look.

Basically this match will shape out into one of two ways: whether Chelsea stays in control or whether they do not. The latter will be what Bielsa will want. He will want Chelsea trying to play faster to avoid the press and he will likely know that the faster Chelsea plays, the sloppier they get. He will also like his side’s chances of maintaining that high tempo for longer given it is what they have been doing for years now.

Lampard will want his Chelsea to do what they have done in every game of this run and maintain control. Much of the current momentum is down to game management. The Blues push hard for an early goal, then they back off and make the opponent chase them. Once the opponent is worn down, they turn the speed back up and pile on. To do so against Leeds will be difficult but not impossible.

Furthermore, that control can yield its own chances. As seen against Sevilla, Chelsea was unafraid to play out of the back slowly until they triggered the press. Once doing so, they rapidly took advantage of the space created. Indeed, the opener was created exactly this way. Sevilla had their press triggered and within seconds the ball had gone from Kurt Zouma to Olivier Giroud for his first of four.

Leeds will give up just as much space, it will just be rarer for them to not have their press triggered constantly. If Chelsea can take advantage of that without getting lured into matching the intensity and losing control, the Blues can find their way to goal. Otherwise they will be playing into Bielsa’s hands and Lampard of all managers will not want to give the Argentine the satisfaction.