Last season, Thomas Tuchel used a fairly consistent front three equation in most matches. One player would be a creator, tasked with using spacing or passing to find openings. Another player would be a runner, looking for space in behind as they stretched the play vertically and horizontally. The last player would be a focus player, a reference point that held the opposition back and stayed in a fairly consistent area looking to bring players in.
This season, Romelu Lukaku has completely taken the reference point role most commonly held by Kai Havertz last year. Havertz has now been given more freedom to play the creator role, but that is also part of the issue. Tuchel, through his own choice and outside factors, has mostly opted to use two creators and Lukaku this season. Perhaps the thought process is Lukaku can take on duties of the runner and two creators can create enough for him to score. The issue, however, is that they get in each other’s way.
Recent Chelsea matches have shown that the Blues are getting bogged down by two 10s. There are too many cooks in the kitchen this season. Chelsea’s winning regardless, as teams with a certain pedigree do, but Tuchel already had to make the adjustment to regain control against Spurs.
So much of making an XI is about finding the right balance of players. It’s rarely about getting all the best players on. On paper, the trio of Lukaku, Mason Mount, and Havertz should be Chelsea’s most effective trio. The problem with it is that both Mount and Havertz want to find similar spaces off the ball to influence proceedings. They make similar runs and, very often, make similar decisions at the end of plays.
This configuration has been preferred by Tuchel thus far in “big games”, if Arsenal can still be called that. Other matches, such as Aston Villa and Zenit, featured Hakim Ziyech instead of Havertz or Mount but it was largely the same set of issues. Ziyech also wants to be in similar positions as Mount and Havertz so the trio consistently bogs things down as they all want to do the same thing.
Much of this hand has been forced as of late. Christian Pulisic’s injury has been ill timed for rotation. For whatever reason, Tuchel seems to have little to no trust in Callum Hudson-Odoi in the front three. And Timo Werner, once the second or third most trusted player, seems firmly behind Lukaku rather than an option to partner the Belgian.
The 3-5-2 switch against Spurs can potentially solve the issue simply by putting the two creators on different lines. Though Mount did not play long in the formation against Spurs, he and Havertz did manage to stay away from similar areas as a result of having different starting positions when possession was won. But one question to have about that would be who else is capable of playing in the midfield three. Surely both Havertz and Ziyech can, but whether they should is another matter. Furthermore, a full switch to 3-5-2 makes the futures of Hudson-Odoi and Pulisic even more unknown unless they are seen as viable options for playing up top off a striker.
The recent dip in form for pretty much every player around Lukaku has largely been a result of this imbalance. Should Tuchel consider 3-5-2 more full time or opt to keep a runner instead of two creators, things should improve. But as it stands, right now everyone is just tripping over each other trying to be the hero.