Since the season began – and Chelsea made such a good start to their Premier League campaign – much has been made of the potential impact of this month’s African Cup of Nations on Ancelotti’s title hopes. The loss of the influential Drogba and Essien, who have scored 23 goals and made 8 assists for Chelsea so far this season between them, would surely spell disaster for Chelsea’s title charge. On top of that, the loss of key squad players Mikel and Kalou would – supposedly - weaken the Chelsea challenge further.
Those players are a significant loss - it’s unlikely that any side in the world could lose £74m of talent and not be affected. More significant of course, could be the news emerging over the last couple of days that Michael Essien has once again suffered a knee ligament injury while on international duty with Ghana and will not only miss the entire African Cup of Nations but very likely a minimum of 2-4 weeks for Chelsea.
In the midst of the prophecies of African Cup of Nations doom that have circled Stamford Bridge over the past weeks and months however, I’m hopeful that the competition could well be the best thing that’s happened to Chelsea all season, for one key reason.
Whilst giving Ancelotti credit for a fine start to his managerial career at Chelsea, I have also repeated my belief on this blog that a narrowly-executed 4-4-2 diamond isn’t doing Chelsea enough favours. Against well-organised, stubborn sides defending deep and narrow, Chelsea’s diamond has too often struggled to create clear-cut chances. Having to thread delicate passes through such defences – and especially when the Chelsea squad hasn’t been set up to play this way – is operating with too great a margin for error.
When the team isn’t 100% on song, the diamond doesn’t give Chelsea enough of a chance – just as against West Ham and Birmingham recently.
In my opinion, adding greater pace and trickery in wide areas – whether through a change of formation or encouraging players either side of the diamond to get chalk on their boots – will unlock better attacking performances against more defensively savvy sides. It’s not rocket science…
But, in taking Chelsea’s (and arguably the Premier League’s) most influential player – Didier Drogba - away for a month, the African Cup of Nations will force Ancelotti to view his side’s options differently. Without Drogba’s presence upfront, it seemed the Italian acknowledged the need to pose opponents a different threat immediately, and reverted to the familiar 4-3-3 against Sunderland.
Admittedly it’s only on the evidence of just one game, but the change has already been devastating. In the final third Chelsea played with far more width than in previous games and, coupled with the now-expected strong showing from central midfield, a depleted Sunderland side just couldn’t live with it. Take a look at the two pitch views here: the left shows the passes Chelsea made during the 1-1 draw with West Ham, the right shows the passes made during Saturday’s 7-2 thumping of Sunderland. These images were made using Guardian interactive chalkboards.
Not only does the sheer number of passes completed in the Sunderland game (159 more than against the Hammers) demonstrate the value of spreading the play, the image also shows how Chelsea’s wider formation allowed far more attacking play in wide areas of the final third (particularly down the right). For me, it’s no coincidence either that Frank scored two goals – only his fourth and fifth goals from open play this season – under this system. With Sunderland’s defence stretched to try and hold Chelsea’s wide players, he was afforded far more time and space to ghost into the box.
Hopefully the evidence of the attacking display against Sunderland will be enough to convince Ancelotti that a width-less attack doesn’t always cut it in the Premier League (I can’t believe it’s the best system anywhere, to be honest). It may well take an African tournament and the loss of some of Chelsea’s most influential players to make him realise, but if Ancelotti gives Chelsea flying wings it should pay dividends in the long run.
i think its better to change the formation according to the opponents...
Posted by: zaneeBlue | 19 January 2010 at 15:47
Great article, very insightful!
I love those Guardian chalk boards.
Posted by: Sparky | 19 January 2010 at 16:05
ZaneeBlue - thanks for your comments. I think you're probably right in an ideal world, and Hiddink was the master at that. Whilst I do however think 4-3-3 does suit us a little better, the point I'm making in this article is there is a real need for width. This could come even through the diamond Ancelotti currently employs - atm even the likes of Malouda (when he plays) seem to be given orders to play through the middle. Odd.
Sparky - thanks! Agree on the chalk boards. You can spend ages playing around with them...
Posted by: Russell Saunders | 19 January 2010 at 16:11
i totally agree with this article...
sometime i really miss jose maurinho...jose will change the formation or the way the team play according the opponents...especially when we are behind...but carlo sometime make the substitute very late in the game...
Posted by: syd_master | 19 January 2010 at 18:37
Interesting point about formation. But what happens when Drogba comes back? How are Drogba and Anelka going to play in 4-3-3? Surly we cant ask Anelka to play on right wing after his brilliant performances as second striker. I think this is an enforced change in formation and Carlo will go back to diamond once Drogba comes back. Formation against Arsenal will be interesting to look at provided Drogba plays.
Posted by: TrueBlueDDP | 19 January 2010 at 22:47
Exactly TrueBlue, I put the lacklustre performances down to the person behind the strikers and whoever plays the 2nd striker role, Mainly Anelka of course but is what provides width in the formation to me, aiding the full backs and such. We weren't as good when he wasn't playing and Joe Cole / Deco were oh so poor in our run of games where we didn't get much goals in, or points for that matter.
And we don't always play the diamond anyway, it changes during the game and why doesn't anyone bother talking about the christmas tree used early on in the season too?
Posted by: Nathaniel | 20 January 2010 at 09:33
Reading all the talks about Essien's injury I think we may be talking about ACN being "the worst thing to happen to Chelsea" in a while.
Posted by: Kostaz | 20 January 2010 at 12:37
Nathaniel - we have played different formations, but generally speaking it's been the diamond, I think. You're right though, it's been a fairly fluid midfield/ attack with plenty of exchanging positions and so on. But my argument isn't so much with the formation (although I do prefer 4-3-3 with this Chelsea squad), rather how the diamond has been executed so narrowly. There's no need for it - when playing, the likes of Malouda could more often get into wide positions.
Kostaz - don't get me wrong, the loss of Essien is huge. I just think that, for the long-term, it's potentially a good thing if Drogba's absence makes Ancelotti realise that having width in midfield is a must.
Posted by: Russell Saunders | 20 January 2010 at 12:56
not sure I agree totally with this. I think the 4-4-2 is fine *if* the player a the tip of the diamond can go out wide when he wants.
What really hurt us, IMO, is the lack of players actually running with the ball at the opponents. When you play a 4 in midfield of Ballack/Obi/Lampard/Cole, only Cole is willing to run with the ball and Ballack/Obi both like to play the quick first-time pass. It made our 4 midfield so close together that it was too easy to defend against.
Posted by: oliver | 20 January 2010 at 14:26
I have to say we were too narrow and were trying to pass through the opposition during our bad spell. In answer to the formation v Arsenal, well play the system that beat them in November.Arsenal will play their normal football so why change anything? The way we played against Sunderland was great but their defense was non existant.Scolari used the full backs regarding width and that was pretty easy to negate.
Posted by: Springy | 21 January 2010 at 16:37
With all being said though, we do need to get at teams more as Oliver said, even though lampards been running at people too, getting his close control back really.
And the teams that really defend against us are quite good I say, I'm going to the birmingham game next week and don't know what it's going to be like, hopefully we can get an early goal on
Posted by: Nathaniel | 21 January 2010 at 22:30