5 interesting Tactical details Xabi implemented in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over AC Milan

Chelsea blitzed past AC Milan in their latest preseason game. Well, now it's Johor Darul T’azim. FC. There were loads of interesting tactical details to point out about how Xabi set his Chelsea team up. Let's dive right in.

The shape change, pressing strategy change, and off-ball shape change (5-3-2/5-2-3)

Like his Leverkusen side, Xabi’s shape and formation for this game were different. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was a full-on back 3 system because, as we keep saying, formation on paper is irrelevant. Shapes on and off the ball are the way to understand it. But if you were to say it was a back 3, it would look somehow like that.

But interestingly, It looked like Xabi tried to match Milan here and go man for man. He's done from zonal to man to man, but hasn’t gone full on man to man until now.

On the ball, it was the usual 3-2-5 shape, this time with Josh as a RB/RCB, Fofana CCB, interestingly and Hato LCB. Neto was the RW that became a RWB out of possession, but at times he did defend Estupinian as part of the midfield too at times.

Off the ball, I feel Xabi made the RW track back because the opposition Milan Wingback would need tracking, and it would be harder for the RB to handle it and make the Winger try to track back. The pressing strategy changed. Xabi confirmed he wanted to do something different and be unpredictable. He has now shown another shape that he can use depending on the opposition, but it fits big games.

This isn’t about a back 3 or 4 in all, we used 2 different shapes, on and off the ball, a 3-2-5/3-3-4 on it and off it it’s a 5-2-3/5-3-2 with a very narrow front 6. It makes it hard for Milan to play through the middle. Even Neto is narrow this time, like I mentioned before. It's flexible; if Estupinian and Leao tried to rotate, they communicated, and they switched markers regularly. It was similar to Palestra and Hato, and they always communicated.

The press was more man-to-man than in any game in preseason so far.

An example of a press was here. Notice how Hato jumps out to his man when he drops deep. Milan tried to manipulate the press at times with rotations, but it was not dynamic enough, and the Chelsea players were diligent on their man.

Chelsea force Milan to go to their left, then Chelsea close in.

A Milan clearance gives Chelsea the ball.

Chelsea’s press and counterpressing were excellent in the game. Milan struggled to play out of the back and create chances as well. They struggled to create on the counter when they got Leao in 1v1s with Josh, or a few. Josh handled them.

The role of Lavia and Caicedo, dropping into the backline.

This is quite similar to Maresca’s 2nd season as Caicedo did this too, and very, very common at Leverkusen, which ties into the Xabi principle of movement on the ball, Xabi CMs move around trying to find space, if they can’t find it in the middle, and they are being marked out.

Here is Caicedo dropping deep. This may also be because Fofana isn’t the strongest sole ball progressor from CCB.

Palestra as a left back/lWB

It was also very interesting to finally see Palestra at LB this time instead of RB. With Morgan Rogers coming in, well before Pep Chavarria, Chelsea needed an option at LWB to overlap with Rogers when the team is in possession. Even though we knew this before, seeing Palestra there is as potent as he is on the right side. He tended to use more of his left on the right side; now he’s using more of his right on the left side. He just likes to cut in, even though he's not limited to it. He created chances by taking on his man and dribbling outside of the man and cutting the ball back. Joao Pedro blasted over the bar. Palestra is also comfortable inverted as well, won fouls by rotating with Joao Pedro on the left.

Josh is still an excellent Wide back

Sometimes the criticism of Josh is very funny because everyone knows he needs game time, and some are not happy when he plays and makes mistakes when they know he needs game time. Yeah, they want it away from Chelsea, but watching Tosin and co for the past year, hurts even more because Josh could have been the one playing and making those mistakes, at least he has so much upside to his game. But one thing is still sure. Josh in the RB/RCB role is cash money. He still isn’t ready enough to consistently play CB without mistakes (He’s a young player). Josh’s height, speed and agility allow him to handle fast wingers, and Leao wasn’t any different.1v1s, aerials and just plain old aggressive defending from Josh and Leao could not handle it and were out of the game.

Lots of things to take note of. These are just some of them and it shows Xabi has a lot for us this season. Can't wait for it to start.

Jackson generates football and can play with Palmer and Joao Pedro

Yeah, I can also use this to mention a bit about the rotations that the attackers were doing in the first half. Palmer and Joao Pedro had the licence to move from half space to half space to find space to get the ball. They rotated with their wingers on their side, and Palmer also dropped deep on the left and right, a lot of the time dropped into midfield to make it look like a 3-3-4 shape.

But that aside. Jackson is really showing his game and how valuable he would be to this squad next season. At the time of writing, we also saw how Jackson performed in the left inside winger role against Johor Darul T’azim in the game the next day. Jackson just tends to, for lack of a better phrase, “generate football” every time he's on the pitch. He does all the things that make everyone around him play better. He drops deep, and no one can receive contact and turn their man better than Jackson. Rogers, also being one of the few in the Premier League excellent at doing that, is an interesting watch. Excellent ball by Fofana by the way, he's been showing his more progressive side

He constantly makes runs in behind, which makes him available as a counter threat, and we do not have that unless he's on the pitch as much. I love Cole and Joao, they just don’t provide that at the same level, and its easier for teams to box us in if we don’t have an outball. He also links up excellently with his teammates, give and goes, reads Palmer’s movement here after showing his counter threat.

And Palmer has a very good half chance. He understands Palmer and Palmer understands him.

The fact hes versatile and can play behind the Striker makes him an asset as ive complained about the lack of back up 10s but he coming in there is going to important for the team. Just hope the club keep him.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS FROM THE JDT GAME

Chelsea played JDT the very next day after playing AC Milan, and as expected, it was a much more rotated lineup and very “unorthodox” as well because the shape was basically similar to Potter’s shape against Brighton/Salzburg, where he played 2 wingers as wingbacks. Xabi obviously did it for different reasons, as it is preseason

Gittens and Quenda basically marshalled the wide areas, and it was used very much by JDT, even though Chelsea already started well to really terrorise Chelsea’s wide areas in the game. But what can be a good takeaway from the game was more of some of the players that did show they can play a role this season, and some that can’t. Jackson, Mahdi Nicol-Jazuli, and Quenda once again showed that they can play roles in this season, apart from the obvious Estevao and Gittens, who will be in the squad this season. Players like Anselmino and Suboloye did well, too but Anselmino would be heartbroken again that injuries came again when he was doing well. Delap was actually decent with some of his play, hold up play and took his 2 pens (one of which he won) well, but he almost seemed to be “outmogged” by Jackson, who kept giving him chances like KDB at no 10, which Delap missed, including one outrageous, trivela throughball that he should have scored. Tosin again failed to shift the already existing notion about him with his performance. It seems that when he plays, the team suddenly loses its compactness. It can’t be only him because 2 wingers played as wingbacks, and he soon lost Anselmino to injury and had 2 youngsters playing beside him and one not a CB. However, Tosin still struggled with really marshalling the backline as he should have, hardly tracks runs, and even though he's to play a backup role this coming season if he stays, and many reports have valued his presence in the squad, it looks like his presence on the pitch will continue to be a liability. Essugo, the captain of the day, had some good moments, but he once again showed that he is going to struggle in a possession-based side as he made multiple mistakes that led to a goal or a chance, as he made a lot after JDT’s first goal, which points to how he might fare under pressure in a high-stakes game. Frankly, he’s shown better in the few Premier League games he's played and still showed lots of good things, but he cannot be the primary ball handler in midfield, facing his goal. It was entertatining and Xabi certainly learnt things from the game too but he would love to have about 7 of his returning first team players when his team plays against Real Sociedad on Saturday.