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There’s been absolutely no bones made about it, if Chelsea cannot defeat Shakhtar tonight then we’re in trouble – we’ll need an away win at Juventus in order to secure 2nd place in the group, with 1st place gone for sure. It’s a vital game first and foremost, but it’s also a fascinating game from a tactical perspective, as no doubt both teams will look to play in an almost identical fashion, just as they did in the first leg.
The Ukrainians bested us in numerous areas two weeks ago. Tomorrow is the acid test for di Matteo’s tactical nous. There’s no doubt in my mind, that whilst Shakhtar are probably one of the top 15 club sides in the world (maybe top 10!), we possess a lot more quality and should be able to win. How di Matteo lines the team up and how he attempts to solve/prevent the problems we faced two weeks ago will be a massive indication as to just how well he understands the capabilities and versatility of his squad.
Firstly, let’s have a look at Shakhtar and then consider the options he has. The Ukrainian Champions are currently on a 23 domestic game winning streak; they have a 12 point lead at the top of the table and are no doubt half way to their 7th title in 9 years! Naturally they’ll be full of confidence; certainly in the first game they just seemed to have a winning aura about them. But, the fact that they’re used to playing such a low level of competition, comparatively, can definitely play into Chelsea’s hands. As their Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan confessed to the press, the squad had to train significantly harder than usual in preparation to play Juventus and ourselves. Even though they’re top of the group at the moment, at times they’ve looked fairly toothless in attack, failing to put away chances, while both goals they’ve conceded also have been very soft.
There are lots of little decisions di Matteo has to make, but ultimately he has one thing to decide. Does he try and overwhelm Shakhtar using our home advantage or does he play it safe and focus on denying their forwards space by sitting back and keeping possession?
One thing is absolutely for sure, and that’s we need to defend the flanks better. The wide areas are where Shakhtar really hurt us last time out. I don’t think anybody, including me, wants to see our creative triumvirate broken apart, but, after the number of times we saw Darijo Srna and Razvan Rat bomb forward past Mata and Hazard in Ukraine, sadly I think it needs considering. One other issue we need to address is the space we gave to Mkhitaryan, who I think is a phenomenal player and easily their biggest threat. Initially he was contained, squeezed in between Mikel and Lampard but after the latter came off injured, he found himself in far too much room, with Ramires more preoccupied with the runs of Fernandinho (who in that one game at least looked like a truly world class box-to-box midfielder). Their Brazilian wide men Alex Teixeira and Willian also had very good games, assisted by the clever movement of Luiz Adriano up front, they gave our fullbacks a hard time, leaving them visibly unsure at times whether to hold back or try and push them further up.
If I was di Matteo this is how I would line up:
CECH
IVANOVIC CAHILL TERRY BERTRAND
MIKEL OSCAR
MOSES MATA RAMIRES
TORRES
Firstly, I’d want to make sure Iva and Bertrand stay goal side of their wingers. Don’t let them track too far back and leave Cahill to run the offside trap. In the last game, our full backs simply spent too much time trying to get forwards and it left us dangerously susceptible to counters.
I’d stick Oscar, who had trouble evading Tomas Hubschmann in the away game, alongside Mikel in the double pivot. It might sound risky tasking a 21 year old with playing such an important defensive role, as well as initiating all our attacks from deep, but if I know anything about Chelsea, I know that Oscar is sure as hell good enough. It’ll also mean we can play Ramires wide left to help negate the runs of Srna like he did with Dani Alves in the semis last year. Ideally I’d play him wide right with Bertrand wide left, but with Cole out injured that obviously isn’t possible. Regardless, you’d expect the in-form Victor Moses to deal with 31 year old Razvan Rat well enough. With only room for one of Hazard or Mata left, the latter obviously picks himself at the moment.
Finally, I I’d also go with Torres over Sturridge. I thought the Spaniard did a brilliant job stretching the Shakhtar back line two weeks ago. They clearly aren’t used to dealing a forward with such good movement and he made it show. If only his touch could improve I’d back him to find some good opportunities to score. If it’s evident however his form is no better than it was in the first game, I wouldn’t wait as long to bring Daniel Sturridge on. I’d make sure he had half an hour at least.
Shakhtar boss Mircea Lucescu was actually the last manager to win at Stamford Bridge in the group stages of the Champions League with Besiktas in 2003. Personally I’d be surprised if he does it again. These days we’re a very tough team to beat away from home in Europe. Mata’s comments about how this game feels like a Cup final shows are seriously we’re taking it as well. Hopefully by this time tomorrow we’ll be back on top of the group, back full of confidence in the team after a tricky two weeks and also full of confidence in di Matteo as well, knowing he won’t make the same mistakes twice. And if he wins using my suggested formation – even better!
@MatthewClark46
i preffer Ramires joinning Mikel at the defencive midfeild while oscar joining Matta at the offensive side.
@MatthewClark46
A good article, as usual. I think you meant to put Bertrand at LB instead of Cole right? )) Would also be interesting to see David Luiz playing at DM position (instead of Oscar in your scheme). I have never seen him at that position, but considering all his technical abilities and passing range, I think we could give that a try, but obviously not in this game. What is your opinion on such an idea?
@Sherzod:
Correct, and corrected. Cheers for pointing that out.
I like Luiz as a Centre Half. Often people’s rationale behind playing Luiz in a DM position is becuase they wrongly think (in my opinion) he doesnt have the discipline to play in defence. This makes no sense to me, I think your holding midfielders need to be your most disciplined players on the pitch!
I wouldnt be adverse to the idea if Ramires, Oscar, Lampard and Romeu were all unavailable, I think he’d probably do a good job. But I wouldnt choose to put him there.
In my opinion, it doesnt really matter which team DM put forward to this match, I think the most important is our approach from the beginning which we have to be conservative with the way we go forward for the first 30mins. This will allow us to gain the rhythm with full concentration, the key part is we must not concede first then we’ll be able to analyse their tactics better. Hazard has to be benched because of the defensive duties he can not provide to cover Bertrand, Our defenders will do the most work and make sure no mistakes. KTBFFH. My prediction 3-1
Interesting. You are certainly not DM cos DM just did the obvious yesterday. He stuck with his same line up. I think Chelsea still has three weaknesses: luiz in defense, Mikel in Midfield and Torres in attack. this will be my ultimate chelsea line up:
———-Cech—————-
Azpi—Cahill–Terry–Cole (luiz for sub)
—–Oscar—Rami——— (a fast, hard tackling and smooth passing midfield)
Moses–Mata–Hazard— Marin as sub(honestly i think he hasn’t bn givn opportunity)
——–Sturridge———– Torress needs to come up as a sub
Di Matteo stuck with his 11 for the game and to be quite honest Shakhtar played better football and their attacking build ups were more fluid and easy on the eye, they cut us open mainly on the left hand side, in my opinion they targeted Bertrand as a possible weak link. Anyway we were lucky to get the win, and to see the back of Shakhtar, from the moment the Group was drawn, i knew they would be a dark horse in the group because of their Brazilian flair and winning mentality. It has become signature of this Chelsea generation not to give up and play to the very end especially when chasing games, this is very good character of Champions.
However were is Marko Marin is he still injured, he has alot of quality and has yet to play a game i don’t understand what is going on with him, why can’t we see him.
Richard. You are absolutely correct. They made complete use of the our weaker left side. People bashed Luiz after the game but I think they didn’t read the game correctly. Everytime we had the ball at the back,Bertrand run upfield as quickly as he could! He didn’t even bother to make himself available and that tells you he didn’t want the ball. It could have been nerves or just plain self doubt. If it’s a tactic then I personally think it’s stupid. I see Luiz and Cahill going out wide. That puts alot of pressure on Ramires and mainly Mikel who has to stop counter attacks coming through the middle. But okay,I don’t like to jugde Di Matteo’s tactics now since we’re in an infancy stage of our transition. Shakhtar was expected to be more fluid on the ball because they have been playing this system for years now. I think Marin might play tomorrow against Liverpool,he isn’t injury. He was on the bench for two games straight.
Another Super Sunday Disappointment. This time I have realized three key weaknesses in our game and possible hindrances to our Title Challenges.
1. Strikers. Both Manchester Clubs have 4 Strikers to chose from, City have— Tevez, Balotelli, Dzeko, Aguero. United have Hernandez, Rooney, Van Persie, Welbeck. All these players are competing to be top strikers and their teams are more dangerous because of it.
Chelsea has Torres and Sturridge. Torres has been unimpressive since his arrival at Stamford Bridge. In his first barren spell he reasoned that the midfield was slow and not getting him the ball to his feet quickly enough. In his second barren spell he reasoned that he was not getting enough games so his confidence and sharpness was affected.
This season Torres is an automatic pick, so there is no compliant about games, and to solve the midfield problem, we released Essien, Meireles and Malouda, three good gritty and powerful players and brought in Mata, Oscar and Hazard, three quick creative players behind the striker and his (Torres) production has been poor to say the least. Mind you Chelsea are adapting a new style of play, but our benchmark before was Strength and Power and in my opinion the Premier League is about strength, so players like Mata, Oscar and Hazard despite their silky skills, they lack the Strength and Physical conditioning that we once had when we were dominating the league. And with regard to Sturridge he is simply not good enough.
2. Predictable. Di Matteo 4-2-3-1 line has become expected and good managers will instruct their teams how to nullify this line up. This season Sir Alex and Mancini have tinkered with their formations to achieve different results. For example against Chelsea Sir Alex played 4-4-1-1 , Wingers Valencia and Ashley Young gave Chelsea all sorts of problems and Rooney behind RVP was both an attacking threat plus dropped deep to close the channels Mata, Oscar and Hazard operated. This shows that Sir Alex was thinking about his opposition and utilizing his players to maximize their performance.
Mancini this season has used 3-5-2, or 4-4-2, formation in different games depending on opposition and availability of his players. To be honest the results have not been always good especially in the Champions League but their still the only Undefeated Team in the League and have not lost at Home in the league in nearly two years.
It seems no matter who our opponents are, Di Matteo sticks with this 4-2-3-1 formation. With all the attacking players we brought during the summer Marin Oscar, Hazard, Moses, we should be able to mix it up a bit try a new formation to keep our opponents guessing. Many of you on this Blog have given possible options in formation. I just do understand why we have become so predictable.
3. Skills over Strength
My final issue is Power and Strength, too many times this Season I have seen Hazard, Mata, or Oscar being eased off the ball in midfield and our opponents launch a counter attack. I have noticed it has resulted in goals against us in Shakhtar and at home to Liverpool. Where Hazard loses possession looking at the referee, and the other team scores from the play. I understand we are trying to play like Barcelona and dominate possession and score frequently but Barcelona plays in the Spanish League. Chelsea play in England, where referees don’t give free kicks for modest challenges and the Physical nature of the League in my opinion is more demanding than in Spain. What annoys me is that most of the Bloggers on this site unfairly criticize Mikel in particular, but they don’t seem to realize he and Ramires are left to do the dirty work when Our midfield Maestros lose possesion easily for lack of strength.
To solve these issues,
1. We need to buy Quality striker in January, Cavani, Falcao, Schurrle, Urenthe, are some possible options and We need to bring back Lukaku, this player is Bright, Young, Powerful, Athletic and has Loads of potential and to be quite frank, I do not think we are in a position to be lending out or Strikers when we have an obvious Shortage.
2. Di Matteo needs to utilize his players more, Tinker with the line up, mix the formation we have good attacking, creative players 4-3-2-1 cannot be our one and only way to line up in Games.
3. I honestly miss Essien and to some extent Malouda, I know the team is going in a different direction with more possession based approach and skillful players, However this League demands players with some physical ability and we do not have the Physical strength on the Pitch.
Actually Torres was impressive yesterday, much better than Sturridge. I have noticed, weird it may sound but he is still not receiving the ball as much as he would like to. Our new MAZACAR midfield is good and creative, but it sometimes feels as if they are interchanging passes and playing within themselves and Torres is left as a lone figure. It’s funny, but looks like before our midfield was not creative enough, and now too creative for Torres. Does anyone has a similar feeling? ))) Maybe we need some more time for our players to gel together….?
At which stage of the game was Torres impressive?, he had a header saved from a free kick and I cannot remember when he was dangerous. I may agree, he is not getting the ball as much as he should, however, his movement off the ball, when the MAZACAR trio are in possession is poor, Torres is allowing his markers to keep him out the attack. His hold up play against Liverpool was not bad, but to be honest, he is allowing defenders to keep him quiet.
@Richard
Torres was working really hard during that game, he was tracking back to win the ball. He was winning lots of aerial duels, even his dribbles were working. I might be wrong, but when I look at other strikers play (Suarez, Van Persie and etc.), they too might have a very quiet game for the whole 90 minutes, but suddenly they happen to be in that correct position for that lucky tap-in or easy header which Torres is missing at the moment. Besides that, everything else he does is not too far away compared to all the other top strikers. Just feels like as if he has not been lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time… or maybe, that is what you call a strikers killer instinct which he, at the moment does not posses?…. or is it confidence, which after all that astonishing media pressure has been really hampered?
You might think that I am a Torres fan, well I don’t know. First of all I am a Chelsea fan, but I used to like Torres during his Attletico and Liverpool days, but what really made me feel towards the guy is what the media has done to him after his transfer to Chelsea. I just feel that he has been really hard done by the media, and hope that he proves everyone wrong. I might be naive, but I want justice to be served and want to believe that FORM IS TEMPORARY AND CLASS IS PERMANENT.
Richard. Football evolves. Everyone can see what Chelsea is doing at the moment. Changing from a powerful team to a slick and fluid team with pacey flair players. The game is getting quicker every season and counter attacks are becoming crucial is the modern game. These big players can’t get from point A to point B in a matter of seconds. Sherzod. I also believe Torres isn’t as bad a player the media and small minded plastic fans make him out to be. The proof is in the way we play. Chelsea’s build up play looks eye catching and brilliant but with no end result. You always see the ball going wide to the right back mostly and he then swings in a cross. By the time he swings in a cross,the opposition comfortably has lots of bodies back in and around the box. Now look at our final third midfielders. They are all small in height and lack strength to compete in a duel. That makes Torres the only tall contender to get a head onto the cross. You then have about 3 tall defenders Torres has to compete with including midfielders who tracked back into the box. I’ve never seen defense splitting passes from our attacking trio to release Torres the way wants the ball. That’s why Chelsea should allow the opposition to push up,have their defense try and play an offside trap and then hit them behind their defense with quick lobbed passes or through passes. Torres an an offside trap Torr-mentor to defenders because of his excellent timing to beat the trap. Go check out Torres’ goals against Ireland (groupstage) and Italy (final) in the Euros for Spain. You can keep the ball but if you can’t play that decisive pass then you might aswell give the ball back to the opposition.
Well Sherzod, Like you I am a Chelsea supporter first and foremost, and I certainly hope that Torres class and eye for goal will return for our sake, because the Teams ahead of us in the Premier League have options in the Striker positions, we do not.
But you made a comparison to Van Persie and Suarez, I honestly think these guys at the moment are World’s apart from Torres, Torres seems a lot of times to be running away from the ball and hiding in attack Van Persie and Suarez present clear and present danger for opposition defenses, And you should note that Chelsea has played against both Van Persie and Suarez and Both these players have scored against us, our main striker was lost.