Chelsea v Newcastle Tactical Analysis

Onto the Semis

Chelsea went through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup in dramatic fashion with a late goal and a dominant penalty win. Let’s see how that happened.

Chelsea lined up in the same formation as the whole season and set up tactically as the game against Sheffield United in our last game. 4 CBs, with just Enzo being the change although out of the zones he was meant to be playing as we have seen recently. Newcastle, also riddled with injuries, put out the strongest team they could.

We played the 4-2-4, 4-1-5, and 3-1-6 shapes that we have been playing this season to varying success. In the past 2 to 3 games especially because we have had CBs as Fullbacks.

Bar Maatsen, our fullbacks haven’t been fully available, Gusto had a bloody sock for crying out loud. We even shaped up in 3-2-5 at times in possession (especially in the last 10 minutes when we had natural fullbacks on).

Similar to the last game against Sheffield Utd at home, Chelsea constantly pinned Newcastle in their half. Chelsea did that by being very intense in the press anytime Newcastle had it. We managed to pinch the ball a few times and the pressing has been much better in the last 2 games. Newcastle had to stop trying and started going long, and it was an easy battle to win for us.

Chelsea pressing Newcastle

Newcastle initially tried to press Chelsea high but Chelsea also tried to use that to try and play out to get transition moments. Other times Petrovic just looked for the longer option. Petrovic was good with his feet, brought a sense of calm under pressure and hardly misplaced his passes.

Chelsea build-up play actions v Newcastle

Now what Chelsea did the rest of the night was suffocate Newcastle enough to not even take advantage of Chelsea's weak points, overloading the flanks and putting crosses into the box like they did in our last game at St James’ Park. When you pin teams in their half, sustain attacks and control the game, they can’t be causing you trouble at your end. That’s what Man City did for years, avoid the trouble by giving them a barrage of your own. It's what we did well in our last 2 games.

Chelsea counter-pressing actions v Newcastle

So the onus was on us to break Newcastle's 451 blocks down, and we moved the ball well into areas where we could capitalize. But you could just see the fact we had 2 CBs at Fullbacks, it wasn’t dynamic enough.

Newcastle’s 451 mid-low block

For example here, if Chilwell started as the Left-back, he would be arriving in this position Disasi put in the cross to attack it. It’s not Colwill’s game so he is not doing that. Likewise Disasi at the other side, so it made our attack limited.

Colwill is not suited to arriving into the box like a natural attacking Left-back

Newcastle managed to get some decent openings by trying to take advantage of overloading Chelsea's flanks as they did successfully at St James' Park, but Chelsea dealt well with the crosses and switches.

Newcastle trying to use Chelsea’s narrow defence to their advantage in the wide areas

Newcastle did get their goal when Chelsea were beginning to put pressure on them, but it was very unlucky and against the run of play. Colwill's lazy pass started it and it still should have been dealt with. Badashille looked like he handled it but made a bad error which led to the goal.

Newcastle goal

We created some good openings and chances, with some good combination play in tight areas, and transition moments when we also won the ball high. It helped to open the Newcastle defence a bit as they scrambled to recover their shape and gave us moments to create chances.

Chelsea chances

Chelsea also tried to use rotations, especially on the flanks to move Newcastle’s block around to create space to create chances. Sterling, Enzo on his side, Jackson, Colwill and Caicedo regularly swapped positions to drag the Newcastle players away from their positions, and it did cause trouble. It was the same for Palmer, Disasi and Jackson on the other side. With a more natural fullback it would have been more devastating as we saw when Gusto and Maatsen came on.

Chelse’s rotations off the ball to drag Newcastle’s players out of position

When Enzo had to go off, Broja came in and played at ST. Jackson went on the left, Sterling stayed central behind Broja, and Palmer also played more central and rotated with Disasi on the right.

Sterling started on the right but he picked his moments to pick up moves into the half spaces, especially after Enzo’s departure, as he did in the last game to devastating effect. His ball-carrying was useful until he came off.

Sterling taking up positions in the half-spaces

What was even better in the 2nd half was how we were able to sustain pressure on Newcastle so much that it was only a matter of time before they broke.

Chelsea putting sustained pressure on Newcastle, it tailed off at a point until Gusto moved to the right and Maatsen came as a Left-Back

We became more threatening in the final third when Gusto came on the pitch,; the way we pinned Newcastle was good and allowed them little counters. But we need to be dynamic ourselves in attack and natural FBs helped. Gusto, although starting the 2nd half as a Left-Back, brought ball carrying threat in wide areas and crosses.

But what made us win the game was when Gusto went to Right back and a natural Left-Back came on in Maatsen. It gave the Newcastle defenders more to think about as Disasi (not a natural RB) couldn’t provide an on-the-ball threat and the dynamism as much as Gusto did. Gusto was there for just less than 15 minutes and he delivered 4 dangerous balls which was enough for Newcastle to fumble and give us a goal back. Imagine if we barraged Newcastle with crosses earlier in the game.

Dynamic Gusto

Not just with his crosses but his movement, eating up the space in behind to provide a passing option for the team in behind Newcastle's defence. Disasi couldn’t do that and it just destabilized their defence and gave them so much more to think about.

Gusto’s Movement was superb and it caused Newcastle problems

It’s no wonder when Gusto and Maatsen came on you could see clear shapes akin to the Man City game, preseason, and early in the season v Liverpool and West Ham. The 3-2-5, 2-3-5 seems like the system Poch wants to regularly use but for injuries especially to Nkunku and Carney. Nkunku is back, let’s see whether he goes regularly to that.

3-2-5 on ball structure when Gusto and Maatsen were on the pitch with Nkunku

3-2-5 on-ball structure

The comeback meant in the end we won emphatically on penalties, it was well deserved after we dominated the game and created enough to win comfortably whilst limiting them to the only mistake we made.

It’s now 2 games in a row we’ve stayed compact, pressed better, counter-pressed to recover the ball, controlled the game and limited the opposition to little at our end.

No wonder players like Caicedo have shone in those 2 even more than before. When natural fullbacks start, we’re going to see a difference.

Does it only apply to home games? We will know against Wolves….

Seun