Three ways Chelsea must improve after disastrous pre-season… but it’s clear to see Enzo Maresca has plan in place

CHELSEA’S pre-season tour of America has been underwhelming to say the least.

Fans were dismayed at the decision to leave academy graduate Trevoh Chalobah behind to train in Surrey.

And subsequent performances have been very disappointing under new manager Enzo Maresca.

The Italian left Leicester to replace sacked manager Mauricio Pochettino with big ambitions.

But a 2-2 draw with Wrexham was followed by a 4-1 defeat to Celtic to dampen any expectations.

Blues fans were distraught to see their team concede four to the Scottish champions.

But Maresca claims they are making progress and vows to have his new system in place before the start of the Premier League season – with fans calling him “deluded”.

So what have we learned so far from the two games?

And what can we expect to see from Maresca’s new-look Chelsea when the season gets underway next month?

SunSport takes an in-depth look…

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Full-backs in the attack

The days of full-backs being used in a more traditional manner, stretching the pitch and providing width to their team’s attack, appear to be gone at the top level, at least for now.

In today’s game we tend to see more and more fullbacks being used in more narrow formations to provide more options for their team as they build the attack.

At times these players will play deeper to form a back three with the two central defenders and invert by pushing into the midfield to provide more numbers centrally.

Against Wrexham, Chelsea were defending in a traditional back four system.

But as soon as they regained possession, the right-back – Reece James in the first-half and Malo Gusto in the second-half – moved into the midfield to position themselves as one of two deeper players.

Here, we see James pushing inside to the midfield while Levi Colwill stays deeper as the left-back to form a back three with Benoit Badiashile and Tosin Adarabioyo.

These movements from the right and the left back were consistent, no matter which players were in those positions, and as such it is likely that this is part of their tactical system under Maresca.

While this was a position that seemed to suit James, it is fair to say that Malo Gusto will need some time to adapt to playing more centrally than he is used to. 

But Chelsea will also miss the width and attacking threat that both right-backs provided with their overlapping runs and crossing ability from that side of the pitch.

Both would regularly get into positive positions for Chelsea and provide creativity and threat from their ability on the ball wide on the right in the final third.

In this example, we have a more zoomed out view of the way that Chelsea set up in possession of the ball.

As you can see, the structure in build-up is very much a 3+2 with the back three formed by the left-back and the two central defenders and the right-back having moved into the midfield.

There appears to be little doubt that Chelsea will be planning to use their full-backs in this manner once the season gets underway.

Looking to play between the lines

Last season we saw a full year of Leicester under Maresca as they won the Championship and secured promotion to the Premier League.

The Foxes would look to build from the central third of the pitch centrally and push up into the final third to break down defences.

In this match, we saw something very similar from Chelsea, although with only one player on each side typically positioned high up the pitch and in the wide areas.

The rest of the structure for Chelsea when they were in possession was very much focused on the central areas of the pitch.

With the right-back coming inside this meant that the two more advanced central midfielders positioned themselves as No10s almost on the same line as the striker.

As you can see, when Chelsea were building their attack this meant that they consistently had players in pockets of space behind or between the Wrexham midfielders.

By having their players, for the most part, positioned centrally in these areas this naturally meant that a lot of the passing from Chelsea was vertical with an emphasis on central passing to break lines and move the play into advanced positions in the pitch.

However, the issue Chelsea had when attacking in this manner was that it is all obviously still very new to the players.

Often their advanced midfielders and the wide attacking players were too static in their position and their movement.

This meant that when the first pass was played forward and centrally there was little scope for real combination play and movement as the opposition were able to flood back and block off the centre.

In the second half of the match, we see that it is Gusto, from right-back initially making the run to attack the pockets of space behind the opposition midfield.

Once the Chelsea players begin to get to grips with this kind of positioning and the passing options it provides, then we may well start to see a very exciting, vertical and attacking style of football.

Fans may have to be patient in waiting for it to click properly, though.

Out of possession they still need work

The performance of Chelsea when out of possession in this match was actually very similar to their performance in possession.

There were some clear signs that there is a plan being put in place but it is fair to say that against Wrexham they looked better when they were pressing and counter-pressing high.

When they were pushed back and into a more structured and settled medium or deep defensive block then gaps started to emerge.

And it looked even worse against Celtic, who were able to put four past the hapless Blues defence.

When they counter pressed and pressed high, and when the press was led by their new signing from Barcelona Marc Guiu, it was effective.

They were able to support the press by going man to man behind and forcing Wrexham into long passes or mistakes that allowed them to look to regain possession.

Chelsea were quick and aggressive when pressing high and with Guiu leading the press they were able to force Wrexham into mistakes deep inside their own half.

There was a sense that Chelsea were almost more effective when defending in a less structured way.

When they were playing in a deeper defensive block though, there were still issues with the spacing and the positioning of the midfielders.

This meant eventually Wrexham were able to find gaps and spaces that they were able to attack into.

And against Celtic, Maresca’s men were made to pay for these lapses.

Chelsea enjoyed more possession against Celtic but it was alarming how easily Celtic managed to cut through their defence.

This will, of course, be much more of an issue if it is not dealt with by the time they start their Premier League campaign.

With Wrexham in possession and Chelsea not positioned effectively against the ball, it only takes one switch of play for Chelsea to be outplayed and for the opposition to be attacking in space in the wide areas.

There is still a lot of work to be done on the training pitch and in these friendly matches between now and the start of the season on their defensive shape.

Chelsea were still caught in two minds and between two identities in terms of trying to decide what they were as a team.

Will they press high and aggressively or will they drop and and try to defend in a block?

Conclusion

Chelsea fans, or at least those on social media, are concerned after this match and a loss in their second friendly match to Celtic.

In truth, however, given the amount of substitutions that are made in these games and with the slow tempo you do not get an accurate reflection of a teams strengths and weaknesses.

What we can see, however, is the tactical ideas from the coaches as they approach the season.