Frank Lampard’s hook, line, and sinker gets the better of Manchester United
If you went back in time and told Chelsea fans that at the end of the first season they would be in contention for a Champions League spot and a trophy, they would have bitten your hands off.
For a side that lost their best player who regularly dragged them out of sticky situations, the after Hazard period wasn’t looking good with a transfer ban in place.
Frank Lampard’s first season has been full of highs and lows. Calamity Kepa has taken the nickname off David James, the options in defence aren’t — with due respect to Chelsea’s center backs — Virgil van Dijk and Aymeric Laporte. It isn’t all doom and gloom though, the rise of Mason Mount has given Chelsea hope while Lampard himself has shown tactical flexibility on numerous occasions. But if we went that route, there are also lingering questions regarding Chelsea’s defensive transitions and defensive set-pieces.
Regardless of the results in the final league game against Wolves and the FA Cup final, Lampard has shown indications that he might have been the correct choice for Chelsea. Upcoming signings in Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner will further enhance his arsenal, or alter it depending how you interpret Lampard’s words in his press-conferences.
Before reaching the final of the FA Cup for the 14th time in the club’s history, Chelsea had to bypass Manchester United. The Manchester side is also their direct opponent for a Champions League spot alongside Leicester City.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer changed his shape and starting line-up going into the game by resting a couple of his important players and switching to a 3–4–1–2 shape. “We picked a team to give us a best possible opportunity to go through in the cup and be ready for Wednesday.” said the Norwegian after the game. It didn’t work and he also admitted that.
This factored in on United’s performance on the day, but it would be cruel to place it as the sole reason Manchester United lost the game. Had it been a full line-up, Chelsea would have probably given them a hard time as well.
Lampard’s tactical flexibility mentioned above has been seen throughout the season. It started on the first day against Manchester United themselves when he used dynamic movements from the front four to dominate despite losing 4–0. Then it was a face-off with his old coach Jose Mourinho when he twice outwitted the master. First, when he pressed Tottenham’s three man-build up in the away fixture, then when he used Ross Barkley and Mount narrowly in the reverse fixture to exploit spaces behind Tottenham’s midfield.
On the day of the semi it was present again. Manchester United were smothered in possession, mainly due to Chelsea’s pressing scheme. It could be broken down into many parts but there are two of which that were essential for the pressing scheme to work. In their 3–4–3 Chelsea used their opposite winger (Willian here) to press Manchester United’s second midfielder. All that while Mateo Kovacic progressed to press the other midfielder and Jorginho kept his position as an out of jail card, as well as keeping an eye on Bruno Fernandes.
Willian or Mount — depending on which side the ball is — would regularly go inside when Chelsea were out of possession to press the nearest Manchester United midfielder. This in essence denies Manchester United the quick shift of play to the freer side of the field.
It could be spotted throughout the first half when Manchester United couldn’t play out of the back. Kovacic and the far side winger, whether Mount or Willian, would mark Fred and Nemanja Matic.
This resulted in Chelsea regaining the ball up the field multiple times, where Fred and Matic were attacked from their blind side and dispossessed. It gave Chelsea an opportunity to create chances but more importantly denied United any form of progression.
An example here sees Willian near Matic in case Aaron Wan-Bissaka tries to switch play by playing a horizontal pass. Wan-Bissaka chooses the vertical option but the pass was intercepted by Kovacic, providing Mount and Giroud a chance before Manchester United have organized their defence.
The second part of the pressing scheme that was basis to the first part was pressing Manchester United’s wing backs, forcing them inside to the midfielders or backwards.
Once they played the ball inside, Chelsea’s opposite winger goes inside to press the Manchester United midfielder from the blind side. Here, Mount goes inside from the left side to press Fred.
As Chelsea’s wing-backs moved upwards to press, the Chelsea defenders shifted across to fill the space. Morphing sometimes into a back four when the wing-back pressed forward. You can spot Antonio Rudiger in a left back position as Marcos Alonso is pressing up the field. All the meanwhile, Willian is still tucking inside to track Matic.
The defensive line shifting to fill the spaces when the wing-back presses, makes it look like a back four and more importantly denies Manchester United spaces inside the defensive line.
The pressing denied Manchester United any form of progression and they rarely reached Bruno Fernandes from the build up phase. Chelsea’s press gave them half chances which they didn’t capitalize on till the beginning of the second half. In this scenario, Mount is still taking his inside position to keep tabs on Fred.
That positioning enables him to gain a wayward pass from Brandon Williams who was pressed heavily by Reece James. Mount then progressed and his shot went past David de Gea to make the score 2–0.
Pressing worked perfectly in denying Manchester United any attempt of build up and despite the spaces behind Chelsea’s defence, United couldn’t reach Marcus Rashford and Daniel James.
Moving forward, Chelsea utilized an older tactic and a new one. During the 2017–18 Antonio Conte’s solution against teams who mirrored his 3–4–3 was pushing Cesar Azpilicueta further forward to cross from the right channel. Pushing from a right center back position, the Spaniard was untracked and it was Alvaro Morata who benefited heavily from this.
The situation would be similar to this one. Azpilicueta free in the right channel and crossing towards Morata to head it into the goal. 5 out of the 15 goals Morata scored that season where carbon copy of this situation. Azpilicueta crossing freely from the right channel and finding Morata’s head.
Against Manchester United’s 3–4–1–2 it made sense to reuse this old tactic. Azpilicueta was free to cross multiple times as Brandon Williams was more concerned with Reece James out wide. The Spaniard’s crosses however initially didn’t reap the rewards
The most dangerous chance Chelsea had in the first half was an Alonso header that he should have probably scored from. This chance stemmed from an Azpilicueta cross from the aforementioned position. Brandon Williams couldn’t go out and stop Azpilicueta fearing a pass behind him into Reece James.
Azpilicueta’s crosses could have been better, but the space he had due to Brandon Williams being pinned by Reece James allowed him to put the crosses in the first place. Here, his cross was poor in-front of the Manchester United instead of behind them.
The new trick was one that has been all over the Premier League this season. Inspired by Sheffield United’s overlapping center-backs, Azpilicueta overlapped in addition to crossing from the right channel. Manchester United couldn’t stop the overload out wide.
Azpilicueta’s crosses didn’t result in major chances at first, but the idea was there and Chelsea were having a constant source of chance creation.
The bubble finally popped deep into stoppage time. Manchester United had to switch to a back four after Eric Bailly’s injury, which gave Chelsea more presence out wide.
Azpilicueta overlapped into the free area, and his cross finally found a target. Giroud opened the scoring when he was at the end of Azpilicueta’s cross.
Chelsea added a third in the second half and sealed their route to the final. It will be the first major trophy for either Lampard or Mikel Arteta. Two upcoming managers who have showed great promise in their first seasons in charge.
Lampard’s different approaches give Chelsea an edge they didn’t have under Maurizio Sarri. Next season should in theory provide the tools to implement newer ideas as well. The persisting question however is; Are Chelsea going to continue with the possession oriented approach that Sarri instilled and Lampard continued while tweaking every now and then ? Or is Lampard going to overhaul Chelsea’s style of play ?
