Tactics and Transfers: Post City and the 2nd Half of January

Alonso is too slow to play against a pressing side. He simply shouldn’t have been there. Malang Sarr should have been pushed further up into the left wingback position. Given the quality of crosses he had been able to supply midweek he would have been fine and his athleticism would have dealt with the Sterling issue better than Alonso. A back three of Antonio Rudiger, Thiago Silva, and Cesar Azpilicueta would then have provided the confident and experienced support with enough passing ability between the three of them to spring counter-attacks.

I am shocked at how far I have come on the Jorginho question given where I started under Sarri but given how neither Chelsea midfielder seemed able to control the ball or pass it there was a good argument for his playing. He could have played either instead of the overwhelmed and perhaps tired Kovacic or in a three-man pairing in a 3-5-2. That would have flooded the midfield with quality and allowed Chelsea to get some sort of grip in the middle of the park at least. They wouldn’t have seemed like a sieve at the very least. There’s even an argument to be made for Ruben Loftus-Cheek who is healthy and oddly has great games against City. His technical prowess coupled with physicality would have been an interesting proposal that caused a modicum of concern in the Citizens.

Though I prefer Callum Hudson-Odoi in from the left and he’s one of the few players who has shown genuine chemistry with Lukaku this season the formation would then demand he be in the RWB position. He would at least have then been able to compensate for the pace of Cancelo. A fine suggestion by the way because Cancelo is heavily right-footed and was played on the left. Cancelo was not going to cross so much as try and cut in where Odoi would simply shepherd him towards the midfield and that would leave Azpilicueta to play to his strength one-on-one defending against Grealish who is still in poor form by the way.

Up top, I understand the pressure to play Lukaku, and people thinking that wasn’t going to happen are probably kidding themselves. You have to play the big money striker in the title-deciding mid-season match. That said not playing any of the players he has shown chemistry with was a truly peculiar decision. Particularly not two who would have compensated for his poor pressing. Havertz preferably or Werner would have been a perfect foil to play with Mason Mount.

That then brings us to the issue of Mason Mount’s absence.

It’s true Mason Mount has been off his best recently but so has the whole squad. He’s also still by far the most productive attacker in the side and the talisman of the team. Not playing him in a match like this is tearing the heart out of the side.

Mount needed to play. There is simply no excuse for anything other than that unless he was ill or injured which as of today neither is known to have been the case.

Chelsea were dreadful against Manchester City in literally every fact. Manager, team, attitude, and talent. They didn’t match City in a single realm and deserved to lose. Sadly being Chelsea we’ll have to worry if they learned the right lesson from this or if they’ll simply revert to the usual lack of accountability and infighting.