Chelsea three lessons learnt: Win by losing to make the UCL semis

2. Don’t overthink the tactics or the lack of subs

It is always wise to listen to fans of other clubs when a new manager comes in. One of the most common things Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain fans had to say about Tuchel is he would make head scratching decisions that no one could explain. At Chelsea, these have largely been minimized thus far to bench selection (seriously, we can’t even get Billy Gilmour a plane ticket?), but against Porto they stood out quite a bit more.

Chelsea’s normal high press was extremely reserved in this fixture. In fact, it would almost be more accurate to say that the Blues were trying to contain and counter like Jose Mourinho was still manager instead of trying to press and push.  On paper, that could have been clever because Porto had to come at Chelsea to advance. They would have left gaps in behind to be exploited. That is, of course, if Chelsea played a front three suited to countering.

Christian Pulisic was arguably the only player in the front three one would want on a counter, but he was strangely put on to the right instead of his more dominant left flank. Perhaps this was to shield Ben Chilwell defensively with Mason Mount, but it didn’t really work as a strategy. Nor did contain and counter because all it did was invite more and more pressure from Porto. Only in the second half when Chelsea decided to come and play did the Blues push the Portuguese side out of their half.

Then there are the subs which, out of five, two came after the 85th minute. Chelsea was pretty gassed by the 70 minute mark so that is a bit of a head scratcher. There is something to say about continuity of play on the pitch but that doesn’t matter if your players are crawling on the ground until the final whistle.

Even the subs that did get made didn’t make much sense. Christian Pulisic should be awarded punching bag of the match for that one but he stayed on as Mount came off for Hakim Ziyech. Moments later, Kai Havertz came off for Olivier Giroud for some reason instead of shoring things up for the final seconds of the match.

But the Blues got the job done. On paper, it’s a loss and under normal, league like circumstances some fingers could be pointed towards Tuchel to ask him how that happened and why. But the Champions League is its own set of circumstances and getting through is the be all end all. The Blues did that, so it isn’t worth overthinking the how’s of it for the moment. History won’t really remember the Blues losing this one.