Tactics and Transfers: Same old, new Chelsea and some stars

Annoyingly, the team still plays an abundance of passes at the wrong and least dangerous angle. Regardless, at least the Blues are finally trying a little bit of a push-pull varied attack finally, as opposed to the toe surgery-like “please don’t realize we’re still terrible in defence” attack that they were mainly before Tuchel became the manager back in January, but also after the fact on numerous occasions.

Which then brings us to the one whole truth about this team.

At some point, it will need to be acknowledged that Chelsea’s defense still appears imperfect when truly tested and that part of the reason for three at the back is that the Blues simply need vast numbers to maintain any sort of solidity. Andreas Christensen has been rather poor in recent games and the Dane has been replaced by Thiago Silva, which suggests that Tuchel does truly favor a meritocracy at least.

Thankfully.

Chelsea has struggled with chance creation early on this season and it may be an oversimplification, but it nevertheless has an element of truth to it. The Blues simply don’t play with many attackers, so a lack of chance creation isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Chelsea really only has three attacking players on the field at all times. Between three genuine centerbacks, Tuchel’s preferred dual sixes in midfield and wingbacks on opposite sides of the pitch, it’s hard for the Blues to create a plethora of chances without relying too much on simple individual genius in a team game.