Thinking out loud.... A hypothetical article
Today I just wanted to put some of my thoughts out there
Good Evening Ladies and Gents,
Today I just wanted to air some thoughts from my brain doing overtime as per usual! I always find my self thinking about football and predominantly Chelsea, and at the moment I am very impressed by our tactical tweak which has clearly been a work in progress in training over recent months.
These are all hypothetical and depend on personnel and IF Pochettino stays in charge.
So my first thought would PURELY be for games where we need an extra key to pick the lock of a low block against lower opposition. I ran this past Si to make sure I wasn’t going a little over the top and I am already showing you it is hypothetical as I have included the missing man Wesley Fofana.
I am toying with a pack 4 of Malo gusto, Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill and Reece James and I know what you’re all thinking “square pegs in round holes” but actually we have been doing that all season and contrary to belief it does and can work, it was always a scapegoat reason in my opinion when we were playing poorly, as now we are playing much better it isn’t mentioned. The way this back 4 would set up would be Malo Gusto as the attacking full back and extra winger effectively and then Reece can play the current ‘Cucurella’ role inverting from full back, it doesn’t actually matter to me which of Malo or Reece line up on the left as both would be than adept in the role. As I say this is purely for playing against low blocks, it would almost be a 2-3-3-1-1 formation on the ball and drop back in to a 4-2-3-1 off of it.
The other defensive lineup I have considered at times is similar to how City occasionally play, with 4 centre backs, and already the big issue here is Trevoh Chalobah will probably depart this summer, but here me out.
A back 4 of Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill. Trev could invert with ease, he is so good on the ball and has lots of experience as a holding midfielder, it would allow Benoit and Levi to flourish as ball playing centre backs.
Si and I have discussed these and Si agrees that these could both work again dependant on situations, personnel and management. We do both agree that with our current personnel we are far more suited to a 3/5 back formation generally although teams in this day and age play multiple formations every game now, gone are the days of one formation for 90 mins!
I want to leave this article as a bit of a creative space for you all and would appreciate you all commenting with your thoughts either on my suggestions or your own suggestions…..
Thank you all for reading and in advance for participating
Luke Rushbrook
If Trev departs this summer it will simply be another Tomori, Guehi or Ake experience… incredibly frustrating and the real question is when will we ever learn ? 🥹💙⚽️
Luke nice thoughts and thinking. Strange enough my brother, son and I have been having a similar conversation and picked the same back for as you for the Bloch situation. The only slight variation we had was that gusto and Reece James could alternate as the one stepping into the midfield so that Both could play and both could be attacking fullbacks at different times. It would give us even more flexibility and harder for teams to adjust to, but it wouldn’t need a lot of very careful management on the field. In the other alternative scenario, assuming that TC is sold, you could still use Reece James who would again be the one that steps into them it filled. In reality Man City play this way but utilise in the role that I would use James.