Thomas Tuchel’s reformed Chelsea: How have they risen?
It was a relatively normal January 25th, until the news that Chelsea had sacked Frank Lampard went public. All major news outlets and talk shows had something to say about it. Some saw it as disrespectful towards Lampard, a club Legend. Others saw it as necessary for Chelsea’s season to be rescued. However, there would be hardly any time for the Chelsea squad to think about this, as they had a crucial match against Wolves upcoming.
In due time, former PSG coach Thomas Tuchel was announced as Head Coach of the club, and he was set to manage the club against Wolves too, despite having almost little time to train his players. Nevertheless, Tuchel got to work, and named quite an eye-catching starting 11 for the first game.
The first major shocker in the 11 was that the German had placed Callum Hudson-Odoi, a winger, at wing-back. Despite this happening before, it was a really risky move for Tuchel to make in his first match, but much to my surprise, it worked. Secondly, he had brought in some of Frank Lampard’s ‘outcasts’ back into the team, such as Jorginho and Rudiger, both of whom had been benchwarmers for majority of this season. These tactical moves were highly risky, but they started to make sense once one saw how disciplined the team was.
Thomas Tuchel has always been a manager who pays attention to every single detail, and we see this in his tactically rigid line-ups, as well as how Chelsea actually play. Tuchel almost never has had a fixed 11, and has rotated players effectively according to how he expected opponents to play. This made it hard for opponents to know how to play against his side, since the style of how the Chelsea team plays changes based on who is playing. If Hakim Ziyech happens to be on the field, the Blues tend to press high and send more players in the box to wait for his crosses. However, if Ziyech isn’t there and Timo Werner is, then the team adapt to his style of play, continuing to press high, but also conduct speedy counterattacks at the same time. Frank Lampard had a similar strategy, except that he didn’t organise his team to remain in a tactically sound structure, instead giving his star players the freedom to play how they want, which led to the team being disconnected from one another, and not knowing what to do when.
The high press I mentioned has also been a crucial factor in Chelsea’s resurgence. While managers like Klopp and Hansi Flick utilise a more traditional high pressing style called gegenpress, Tuchel utilises a more unique and particular style of play. Rather than use a traditional 4–2–3–1 or 4–3–3 like Klopp or Flick does, he uses the wing-backs and centre-backs in his 3–4–2–1 to help out with the press, which allows the midfielders and attackers to find more space and be more creative, while also keeping the pressure on the opposition. While the tactic seems like it would be susceptible to counter-attacks, the tactical rigidity which Tuchel demands of his players helps the players recover quickly if possession is lost.
Finally, his system is one which adapts to the needs of all Chelsea players. Tuchel knew he had to be able to include the plethora of talent Chelsea have, so he created a system which can be changed according to the players on the pitch, which means all players, regardless of whether they were under-performers or bench-warmers in Lampard’s side, have experienced a mini upturn of form themselves. Instead of making players adapt to his tactics, he has adapted his tactics to his players, which made, and still makes, a huge difference in how the players committed themselves to the team. Rather than the players having to follow a set of instructions on how to play, Tuchel has taught them to play as an unit, one which allows them to showcase their talents without having to cut back on anything, while also maintaining a sense of tactical discipline. This, to me, is ingenious. This game plan has worked to perfection, with the only time they changed the way they played being against Leeds, and we all know how much of a snooze fest that was.
All in all, we can conclude that Chelsea’s resurgence is down to one thing: unique, unseen tactics. Often, as football fans, we get carried away in stating that a team is succeeding because of a certain player or a few players, when actually, the player/players is/are helping the team succeed because the team is built for him/them, by the manager. In Chelsea’s case, Tuchel has made his system in a similar manner, except that it helps all his players, not only a couple. On days when they don’t do their best, he is quick to give them a warning or sub them off, but ensures that what happens during the match, stays there. This concept helps to keep his system intact, and his players happy. His tactical intelligence in maintaining a rigid yet adaptive formation is revolutionary, and hopefully he won’t be the only manager to do so. A revolution is happening at Chelsea, and if things continue to improve, they may be champions of Europe or England in the near future. We better enjoy it while we can, because as we all know, football is unpredictable.
