Despite winning the game against Manchester United last night, Mauricio Pochettino and Chelsea have still received some critique.
To be honest, the game was a mess, and both teams just showed their inconsistencies, vulnerabilities, and liabilities. Chelsea and United have been poor this season at times, and the way the game was so open last night, just summed that up.
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It was Chelsea who came away as the winners, thankfully for me as a Chelsea fan, and of course you cannot help but celebrate the heck out of that, especially a last minute winner with the last kick of the game. That was amazing!
But you cannot ignore how chaotic Pochettino’s Chelsea looked once again and remember, we were 2-0 up in the first half!
Two pundits have drawn Basketball comparisons on Pochettino’s tactics, and they aren’t wrong. United as well, the same can be said about them. But we have looked this chaotic all season and it needs to be more stabilised to cut out the silly mistakes and lack or organisation.
Julien Laurens of ESPN, and Rio Ferdinand, both said similar. here below…
Julian Laurens: "Cole Palmer is the only good thing about this Chelsea team, I cannot believe you can go into a game like this with no structure – it's like an NBA game."
— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) April 4, 2024
Rio Ferdinand: "It was like a basketball match, up and down, you attack, we attack. That was the worrying thing for both of these teams.
When the dust settles, Chelsea and Man United have got to look at themselves. Man United – there's no team in the top five leagues in Europe…
— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) April 5, 2024
Watch the film again. I don’t think it’s a “lack of structure” for Chelsea as much as it is giving up possession at highly inopportune moments in bad spots on the field. We saw several square balls played (Caicedo’s and Disasi’s leading to a goal and a near goal) that even my 17-year old knows better than to play. You saw Gallagher make some poor decisions in midfield and even Cole Palmer trying to force passes that just weren’t on. The trouble in many of these instances is that they occurred in moments where our players were either already forward or were in the midst of getting forward and loss of possession was particularly costly because of it.
If you think about a team like City, they commit more players than anyone into the attack (often leaving only 2-3 defenders outside the final third. Hypothetically, this leaves them very vulnerable in defence, but ONLY if they lose possession. That’s why I say it’s no about “structure” as much as it is poor decision making and failure to value possession.