Chelsea: Salt shakers between Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola

The press was completely enamored when Marcelo Bielsa “revealed” all of future Chelsea manager Frank Lampard’s tactics. Lampard’s reply of “we do analysis too” was seen by many as a childish retort while they praised Bielsa’s deep knowledge of the game.

Except, Lampard was right. Literally every team does analysis. What Bielsa was doing in that presser wasn’t unique, it was just a peak behind the curtain. So, with a video circulating of Pep Guardiola going into detail about Thomas Tuchel’s tactics ahead of the final, many are handwringing while praising the Spaniard’s deep knowledge.

This, again, isn’t unique. Pep Guardiola may know Thomas Tuchel’s tactics well, but the only difference is the Chelsea manager isn’t promoting his brand by talking out loud about it. Tuchel surely could go just as in depth into Guardiola’s tactics if prompted. Most managers could. That’s just the basics of the job.

You’ve probably seen anecdotes from The Athletic article on the famous salt shaker meeting between Guardiola and Tuchel. The two met for dinner, which quickly turned into a lengthy tactical discussion using salt shakers and whatever else was nearby to simulate players. Tuchel has said elsewhere that there have been a few of these meetings. It is no wonder that Guardiola allegedly suggested Tuchel to be his Bayern Munich successor.

So, these two managers know each other inside and out pretty well already. Guardiola will be very used to this as he is surely the most studied manager in the world right now. Every time he makes one tactical tweak, it prompts the creation of a new YouTube video or book detailing why he did so. Manager after manager has been inspired by Guardiola’s tactics for the last decade as well.

That includes Tuchel. Though very much from the Ralf Rangnick school, Tuchel’s time as a manager coincides roughly with Guardiola’s. Taking the key tenants of Rangnick’s style (aggressive pressing, getting the ball forward as quickly as possible) with Guardiola’s positional play and rotations, Tuchel’s created a unique style very much his own. He probably leans more towards the Guardiola side of things than anything else these days.

And, like Guardiola, Tuchel has shown a few times that he can overthink his decisions at the cost of the game. This is almost always, in Guardiola’s case, called “overthinking” because the implication is that he is simply too smart to have simply made a mistake. For Tuchel, this has manifested itself with the recent decision to play Reece James at centerback with Cesar Azpilicueta at wingback.

James at wingback to counter Jamie Vardy is something that makes sense. Even finding a space for Azpilicueta given Tuchel’s value on leadership makes sense to some degree. But in the FA Cup final the Blues had two slower, more defensive wingbacks which stifled the formation. Since then, Tuchel has continued with the experiment in what feels like planning for the future with James while shoehorning Azpilicueta on unnecessarily. Surely it would make more sense to keep it simple and keep Azpilicueta at centerback and James at wingback where both have done so well for large swaths of Tuchel’s tenure.

Of course, that is also very much a Guardiola trait and one that manifested itself in every other Champions League campaign they’ve had. As mentioned earlier, Guardiola knows he is the most studied coach in the world, so doing something different can curtail the opposition’s plans. But change for the sake of change is rarely the way to go in the sport and things like suddenly switching to 3-5-2 in previous Champions League campaigns has cost him more often than not.

Going into this one, Tuchel’s Chelsea and Guardiola’s City have faced off twice though neither side has had a full team for either match. The strangest thing either has done tactically in those matches is Guardiola using his “double false nine” 4-4-2/4-2-4 formation. Tuchel’s biggest tactical experimentation this season, other than swapping James and Azpilicueta, has been to use Mason Mount as a midfielder who could shift the formation near seamlessly between 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 depending on the width needed in the attack.

What do the managers have up their sleeve for this one? It is hard to tell but if nothing else is certain, it is that the two won’t be surprised by one another. Guardiola and Tuchel know each other and how the other thinks inside and out. Guardiola may be more willing to talk about it, but few managers can point to back to back wins against a Guardiola side without knowing just as much.

“Tactical chess match” is a bit of an overused term but in this case it is sure to be true. This Champions League final will be salt shakers moving along a restaurant table on the grandest stage of all. It may simply come down to who outthinks the other without overthinking themselves.