https://www.reddit.com/r/Chelsea/comments/1ivrzeg/how_chelsea_bottled_it_against_aston_villa/
created by sheiswhyididthis on 22/02/2025 at 20:17 UTC
23 upvotes, 7 top-level comments (showing 7)
So another lackadaisical display from us today.
Leading at halftime and then moving on to lose the game in the second half.
It's become a pattern really, hasnt it.
But yeah, lets go through the game and see what all happened.
First off, credit to Maresca for switching our shape up for this game. Not in the sense of a formation change per se, but a really nice adjustment. Or should i say, adjustments.
In our last few games we have seen Nkunku give us his best Traffic Cone impression as a CF deputizing in Jackson's absense. He lacks the pace to make runs in behind, and also lacks the intelligence to make these runs for some reason.
Guess who is good at making runs though.. Neto.
And thats exactly what Maresca fixed today. Switching Neto and Nkunku's positions meant Nkunku getting more space to do something with the ball thanks to attacking from the left, and we had a pacy runner in Neto who was making runs in behind Aston Villa's high line.
Villa were struggling in the first half because of this. And i mean, really struggling,
We got the early lead and were constantly threatening Villa thanks to Neto being smart enough to make the diagonal runs into the channels. Taking advantage of Villa's overly ambitious fullbacks.
The other smart change we saw today was how we deployed 2 Right Backs.
Reece played the role Gusto has struggled at for such a while now, inverting into midfield.
Gustoon the other hand played on the flank, overlapping and providing width.Stretching the Villa backline.
Smart move again from Maresca, as it lets Gusto do what he has been best at under Poch.
Bomb down the wing and swing in threatening crosses.
But as is the case this season, the opposition found a way to counter Chelsea's tactics. And then Maresca couldnt counter that counter. Which nicely brings us to the second half.
So, we set up in a back four consisting of Reece James, Chalobah, Colwill and Cucurella.
With Reece underlapping into midfield, our rest defence was a back three consisting of Chalobah on the right, Colwill in the center and Cucu on the left.
But when Chalobah got injured and had to come off, on came the other Right footed defender we have, Tosin. Who as we know, is not as pacey as Chalobah.
So, now there was suddenly a need for Gusto to be a little more conservative. He couldnt bomb down the wing as much as he did in the first 20 mins as he needed to help out Tosin who is not someone who you want playing as an outside CB.
Emery being the smartass he is, noticed this and decided to compound Gusto and Chelsea's misery.
Yeah thats pretty much it.
Emery's response to the Gusto conundrum was to simply put Rashford on against him.
Rashford as we know, is a pacey experienced player and thus Gusto had to now be much much more conservative with his positioning.
He went from playing like a Right winger to essentially being a RIght Back.
And our width on the Right side of the attack completely evaporated.
Palmer was having to move into the wing a lot of times. Sometimes we saw Neto moving in there to fill in for Gusto. But yeah, the overall attacking structure was completely fucked.
And thats it.
We once again saw Maresca's skill at organising his team for a game, and then his inability to make reactive changes to the team according to the game state.
And this is a pattern that is understandable tbh considering the lack of experience our manager has at the top level.
I am sure he will learn and get better.
The question is though, is Chelsea the place where he should be learning?
Comment by Panini_Grande at 22/02/2025 at 21:52 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thought we played pretty well overall. Undone by mistakes at each end. They had options off the bench, we couldn't respond. A billion spent and such a limited squad.
Comment by Total_Horse_9251 at 23/02/2025 at 04:32 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What I actually feel is we were good tactically but there are some individuals who don't deserve to be in this team especially our goal keepers. Malo gusto has just dropped his levels this season I feel he should be doing better. Cole palmer's form is another concern the chances he got yesterday he would score them 9/10 times if he was in his form like early in the season.I don't blame the manager and even feel sad for some of our players who actually were good. The problem has always been the ownership, they needed to get some experience in the team which they never did just went for profit business model. But the same pattern is repeating in all our games if you guys see.We score early in first 15mins and everything looks good but if we dont get the second then we don't have the mentality to see out the games at 1-0 because we don't have any experience
Comment by VN_96 at 22/02/2025 at 22:13 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was at the game today. We didn’t deserve to win. Completely suffocated us second half, not having a focal point is massively detrimental. Neto and Fernandez did well
Comment by Slipz19 at 23/02/2025 at 10:22 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Anyone else realize how the wheels started coming off since Fofana got injured.
Comment by Other_Necessary_2465 at 22/02/2025 at 23:14 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
First half was a breath of fresh air after last few weeks but 2nd half was same old story. Since Xmas rlly lack ability to score another and kill a game off. Maresca did well with the tactical change but I thought not bringing on fresh legs in the midfield killed us. We can’t rely on palmer to bail us out in every game as he was bound to have an off patch.
Comment by jamejamejamejame at 22/02/2025 at 20:36 UTC
8 upvotes, 5 direct replies
This is such a bad take. The team were excellent. Tactics were clever given our missing players from defence, through the spine to strikers. Total nonesen waffle. As if they were lackadaisical. They ran to the end and gave it 100%. We haven’t seen a performance like this for weeks and weeks.
Comment by ifcoffeewereblue at 22/02/2025 at 22:05 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I agree that putting Neto down the middle was very unexpected and worked like a charm. Early goal and a few half decent looks. With a bit of luck could've been up 2-0.
But even in the first half, they were able to carve through the mid relatively easily at times and bully the team on 50/50 duels. I haven't looked at the stats this is just off the eye test, but I'd imagine duels won was massively in favor of Villa. This has been the most difficult thing about the last few weeks. Even when the team has sparks for 10-15 min, it never feels like it will last because eventually the other team will win the battle for midfield and there's nobody Chelsea can turn to.
With the ball on their feet, the boys put in a pretty decent shift over all. Gusto, Cucu, Neto, at times Enzo, all looked energetic and making much less formulaic runs than the last few matches. At least the first half was a fun watch. But if Chelsea don't figure out a way to boss the midfield a bit more, it's going to keep happening like this