Chelsea, England, and Germany’s interwoven history of three at the back

There has been much discussion about whether Chelsea should or is planning on reverting to a back four next season. Overall though, Chelsea’s biggest successes of the last five years have come not with four at the back, but three. Antonio Conte lifted the Premier League with his 3-4-3. Thomas Tuchel lifted the Champions League with his.

Three at the back has become more and more popular in recent years with Chelsea being one of the club teams leading the way. Conte wasn’t the first in the world to revive the system but he has surely been the most successful. At the same time, other branches of the game have been building towards it as well.

England and Germany look set to pit three at the back against itself in the Euros. Their history of it is interwoven with Chelsea’s. There is no one starting point but there are plenty of cross over points between the three sides, directly and indirectly.

For England, it mostly starts with Conte and Steve Holland. Holland was Chelsea’s longtime assistant manager during Conte’s first season. He was on the front line of Conte’s decision to switch from four at the back to three at the back. When he was tapped up to follow Gareth Southgate from the u21 side to the main side, Holland took those ideas along with him.

In World Cup 2018, England was at its most successful in decades with their 3-5-2. The formation faded in and out of favor in the years since, but it looks set to return as a counter to Germany’s 3-4-3 in the Euro 2020 knockout round.

Germany’s history of three at the back points more towards the evolution of gegenpressing than anything else. Jurgen Klopp is the man most associated with the style, but Ralf Rangnick is the god father of it. His disciples, most notably Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann, both began to understand that three at the back makes the team more functional in pressing and in verticality.

First of all, playing three at the back forces an opponent to commit one more player to press defenders playing out of the back. Pep Guardiola and Maurizio understood this concept too with a midfielder dropping deep, but Tuchel is among those to simply skip the extra step. An opponent having to commit that extra player to press creates more vertical space to attack quickly.

Secondly, the ability to press while maintaining a solid shape is maintained. In a back four, a full back can press or get forward but it leaves the side disjointed and closer to 1v1 at the back for a counter. Three at the back creates a spare man as the wingbacks and back three “swing” in unison towards the ball. This pendulum effect allows the team to maintain a stable base while still pressing the opponent high up the pitch with numbers.

Joachim Low has been using this style with Germany more and more in recent years and it finally appears to be clicking together as more of his players play in teams that use three at the back. The Chelsea boys have obviously benefited, but so have those out of Atalanta, Leipzig, and Dortmund who have all lined up in back threes at various points in recent years.

For England versus Germany itself, the three at the back switch by England will be used to nullify Germany’s ability to create overloads. That likely turns the game into England looking for counters and Germany looking to break England down with movement and skill rather than numbers.

In many ways, it’ll be Conte’s Italian style of three at the back versus Tuchel’s German style of it. The links are often indirect, but very much present between the two national teams and Chelsea’s usage of three at the back.