Chelsea vs West Ham United - Some Thoughts!

Watching Chelsea vs West Ham United last night highlighted (in my opinion!!) Enzo Maresca's stubbornness to stick to his principles even though at times they really struggled to break down West Ham's low 5-4-1 block (out of possession).

Chelsea deployed both full backs in central midfield when they had the ball in West Ham's half of the pitch BUT this wasn't the glaring issue in my eyes. The issue they had was both Jayden Sancho and Noni Madueke were both playing off their wrong sides which meant every time they got the ball they either received and played backwards (due to their natural instincts) or came inside to West Ham's block which played into their game plan of seemingly denying Chelsea the half spaces they so often look to dominate. This movement to the interior or back wards from Chelsea's 2 wingers allowed West Ham to keep in place their wide central defenders and wing backs to nullify Chelsea's threat from wide.

In this instance there are 2 reasonable solutions (but probably more!):

1. Continue to play wingers on their weak sides and have full backs that overlap - that way West Ham's wingback's and wide central defenders become disturbed by the over lapping runs which could open the spaces for an attacking run into the box or beyond the back line of West Ham.
2. OR have natural wingers who have the profile of someone who likes to go beyond a defender in a 1v1 which would allow Chelsea then to still play their full backs inside to provide cover for any potential West Ham counter attacks that may occur due to Chelsea's dominance of possession.

Chelsea scored their first goal when West Ham didn't get across the pitch quick enough to deny space and that left Pedro Neto too much space to come back on his strong foot and cross for him to then score the rebound - probably one of the few times that Chelsea managed to work this opportunity in the game. (Shown in the image in the article).

Funnily enough Chelsea's second goal came from Pedro Neto getting to the byline and crossing the ball - even though it was overhit - it came to Marc Cuccurella who pulled the ball back for Cole Palmer to score what proved to be the winning goal of the game.

West Ham played well and looked tactically sound under Graham Potter and had a clear plan to frustrate Chelsea and looked a threat on the counter attack during the second half. Potter said after the game in his post match press conference that he was pleased with his teams performance tactically:

'I thought the performance was really good, lots of good things. I thought we were intelligent tactically'

I really enjoy looking at these tactical nuances during a game and this is something I need to continue to work on as a coach but find it fascinating how these small tweaks can make such a huge difference on the outcome of a football match at the highest level.

Seeing the game from above in my experience provides a good vantage point to identify tactical problems which is the beauty of having tactical analysts in the stand who can provide that quality of live feedback during a game.

Everyone sees the game differently and I appreciate everyone may have a different view point on the game but this is how I saw the game play out - some may say the game plan of Chelsea worked because they won, however I think West Ham set up well and the game demonstrates the fine margins of the game that we all love at the highest level.