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

Individual performances of course play into this. It’s true, Kai Havertz has not reached the admittedly high Zinedine Zidane-like standards suggested of him. Hakim Ziyech is running a confusingly constant version of hot and cold, which is also incredibly frustrating. Christian Pulisic’s inability to get an exterminator for his injury bug leads to his unavailability a majority of the time. Mason Mount too is finally tiring of the weight of not just Chelsea, but England, as well. This all combines to make sense of the fact that Chelsea is struggling to attack.

That is why the simple through balls that I suggested before are so important.

The fact that the Blues have been playing with seven players who are essentially always behind the ball, and not even attempted any, has been the issue. You cannot constantly invite opponents onto you without the threat of punishing them on the break. Admittedly, I am a total football believer, but football must flow. It must be give and take. If you invite the opponent into your area, you create space behind them—attack there. If you are going to move with sloth-like pace up the field until every player has played a dozen static passes back and forth agonizingly to one another, you need to shoot from distance every once and a while. An element of threatening and dangerous chaos is fundamentally important to any good attack.

Tuchel is a smart manager, he knows this. The issue is that Chelsea’s defense was so porous last season that he needed to shut up shop before making any progress moving forward. His 3-4-2-1 can still work if the midfielders play a more complete game. Otherwise, the Blues will need to shift. This is a different situation than last season though, much more is being asked of Tuchel and the team. This is a full season on all fronts, a proper campaign with fans in the stands where they belong. It’s not trying to simply make the most of a cup run and struggle into the Champions League places.