Whenever Chelsea play a game like tonight, with a heavily rotated team, there are always going to be players playing out of position, or a new shape to the side.
Even when the teamsheet comes out, there’s a scramble to figure out who is playing where – will they force square pegs into the round holes of the normal formation, or choose something entirely new to suit the players?
According to Thomas Tuchel, today it was the latter.
He said his team had “never played in this formation”, and while at times it looked like the familiar 343 we’re used to, it did also have some clear differences.
At times it looked like 4 at the back, while at other moments in the first half Ruben Loftus-Cheek was dropping into the midfield of a sort of lop-sided 433, with Saul Niguez and N’Golo Kante.
It’s not something we’re likely to see repeated, given we’re unlikely to see this set of personnel again, but the squad and the coach’s ability to adapt never cease to impress.
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