Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea Already Look Different — 3 Tactical Reasons Why

Xabi started his Chelsea managerial career with a 3-2 win over Fulham. A very interesting game came with many interesting tactical details we can pick apart in Xabi’s first game. Xabi’s lineup was a shocker considering it featured 6 defenders in the lineup.

You can understand Chelsea fans being fearful of a very pragmatic approach. But far from it. What could we learn from Xabi’s first game?

Xabi’s team want to press and counter-press, and the attackers are smart too enable it.

This was basically what caused the first goal. Chelsea pressed Fulham man-to-man and made sure Fulham couldn’t play out of the back when they tried to. Fulham tried to play out in a 4-2 shape, with the inside LW dropping deep to receive in Palacios while Robinson stayed wide; the Chelsea CBs stepped out to press those inside half-space forwards for Fulham. Palacios and Josh King. Notice how high Acheampong is pressing Palacios. Colwill did the same for Josh King when he dropped deep, but an interesting thing Xabi does and did here again was that he instructs his team to once they have forced the opposition to play to one side, they then condense the pitch on that side, and even leave the Fulham players on the other side freer so they have enough bodies to deal with 2nd balls.

Chelsea scored from this.

But less of the reason of tiredness not to continue the press, but because Fulham did their best to come back into the game, thanks to Chelsea mistakes from Hato, Colwill and Sanchez, which all contributed to Chelsea getting back into the game. Fulham began to pin Chelsea back a bit more. But that is another point. The press and counter-press were huge reasons why Chelsea created a number of good openings and chances in the first half, especially.

Look at the counter-pressing moment for example.

Fulham win the ball but Chelsea force them back

But Cole is on it in a flash and wins the ball,

Rogers is also on it as well and wins the ball

Chelsea are now in a dangerous situation

Cole could have used his right foot earlier but Chelsea kept on getting into dangerous attacking positions via their pressing and counter-pressing.

Chelsea’s 5 at the back shape can get pinned back?

One of the tendencies of 5 at the back teams off the ball is the tendency to not transition well enough to a high press from a mid-low block. Chelsea initially did well with this, but when Chelsea’s mistakes began to give Fulham more of a foothold on the game, Fulham, though, began to have more and more of the ball and pin Chelsea back. Fulham also looked to have rotations implemented in their team. Bobb, for example, was dropping as deep as a deep-lying playmaker to receive and pass the ball, and Josh King was dropping a lot as well, but Colwill for example, who was meant to track Josh King, couldn’t easily because the CBs had a lot of distance to cover to get to their man.

This was a huge reason, coupled with Chelsea’s mistakes, that Chelsea couldn’t keep up the press and transition from the mid-low block to the high press.

The possession numbers back this up in the first half too, because in the 2nd Half Chelsea scored early so the game state was Fulham trying to get back into the game all half.

Since the CBs might take more time to cover the ground, maybe it would be better if there were another midfielder or Winger like Neto who can be a wingback off the ball, it was certainly what I expected personally, and I was surprised he did not start but came on later along with the other attackers late in the game which was different game management from Xabi to put attackers late on to keep up with the press and it worked (That’s by the way).

It’s the first game of the season with Caicedo and Palaestra not available so that is also a factor. But we will keep an eye on this.

The Chelsea front 3 is going to be a problem

JP Morgan, as it is looking like on the street already. They have gotten off to a flying start. All of Joao Pedro, Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers got on the score sheet; Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer both got assists as well. The individual quality and the chemistry between them already is a joy to watch, and it has the league taking notice already.

We see their willingness to link up with each other here. Reece heads the ball to JP, he immediately finds Palmer with a deft header. Palmer, outside of his boot, flicks it to Rogers, and JP is already making an off-ball run to receive in behind, which also creates space for Morgan to carry the ball into.

This time, Rogers tried to shoot, but it was blocked, and it was a sign of more things to come.

Another involving just 2 of the 3 was the first attacking action of the game. Palmer receives the ball from Lacroix after Chelsea press high and Fulham clear, and Palmer already knows JP is on his bike. With a deft one-touch pass in behind for Joao, he finds him; Joao’s first touch is excellent as well, and his 2nd touch is magnificent for the first goal.

The combination of the 3 of them again was evident for the 3rd goal as well. Sanchez, this time, goes long; Rogers, whose height and physicality already looked impressive for Chelsea, used the height to good effect, latching onto Sanchez’s long pass and flicking it into the path of Joao Pedro, who was just in his half. Palmer was on the inside right, but once JP got the ball in that position, Palmer, like he similarly did against Westham 2 seasons ago with Jackson, made a brilliant movement to run off the back of him and finish excellently for his first goal of the season. There were many more of those. There were rotations, link-up plays and shots from all of them. They all looked to create and take responsibility to take shots, which is always a good sign.

Palmer ended up with 5 shots and 3 chances created, 1 Big chance created, a goal, and an assist.

JP, 4 shots, 2 chances created, 1 Big chance created, 1 Goal, 1 Assist

Morgan Rogers, 5 chances created, 3 shots, 1 Goal.

They directly impacted the game and it’s just the start but if 3 of them are directly contributing to goals, they might just need at least one of 2 of them to be on it at least each match day and Chelsea can score goals, then you have the rest of Chelsea’s attack on the bench that can provide real quality as well like Estevao, Quenda and yes Neto still.

It's been a while since Chelsea have genuinely had 3 quality attackers at the same time that can have the synergy to put out quality attacking moments in a game consistently. Chelsea would hope to have an attack that can be capable of winning the league and would just want them to play more games together because they can do damage to teams