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Each week, totalfootballanalysis.com tactically previews the Fixture in Focus. Today, Simon Doyle takes a look at the Premier League clash between Chelsea and Liverpool.
From impressive newcomers to exciting title challengers, this highly charged 2018/19 Premier League season has quickly set about reminding us all of why it is the World’s most popular league. The intense drama this league can serve up is regularly amplified in this weekend’s (and perhaps this season’s to date) most anticipated fixture between Chelsea and Liverpool.
It’s firs versus third, it’s blue against red and it’s a clash of two very similar footballing philosophies shaped in differing styles. High-pressing, rapid transitions and blisteringly fast attacks are trademarks of both Maurizio Sarri and Jürgen Klopp’s philosophies as well as being the perfect ingredients for an incredibly entertaining football match.
The Warm Up
Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off will be the second meeting of these two teams in the space of 72 hours. Wednesday night saw Liverpool host Chelsea at Anfield in the third round of the Carabao Cup as Eden Hazard stole the show with a superb individual goal to send his side through to the next round.
But the 2-1 score line in favour of The Blues didn’t tell the full story, Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool will feel they did more than enough to win the game while perhaps again failing to clear familiar hurdles met in recent seasons.
In what was a pulsating, end-to-end game, Sarri’s Chelsea may have edged possession but it was Klopp’s side that had the better of the chances. With cleaner finishing and perhaps a slightly less formidable goalkeeping performance than Willy Caballero put in at Anfield, Liverpool surely would have been in the hat for the next round of the League Cup.
The line-ups will very likely rotate again this Saturday as more familiar names come back into the starting XI and will hopefully maximise the performances of the Premier League’s two most impressive teams thus far.
Sarriball v Heavy Metal
This won’t be Liverpool’s first high profile game away from home in this budding season, having already won away at Leicester and more notably away at Spurs in what was touted as the first meeting of two very possible title contenders this season.
Despite dominating possession in all of their home fixtures this season, Liverpool approached their opposition in those away wins at Leicester and Spurs in a more counter-attacking setup.
Above: Chelsea’s full-backs push high and wide during the build-up while Liverpool’s forward and midfield three’s are quite compact and aggressive in their press. This creates a 5 v 6 situation in favour of the reds as there is a lot of space to exploit should their press be successful.
Above: And at times it does pay off, Sturridge’s tackle in the above example led to a Liverpool counter attack where both wingers moved into gaps either side of the Chelsea centre-back pair.
Jürgen Klopp’s counter-pressing style, known as Gegenpressing, is infamous in the world of football and his Liverpool side use it to great effect. He has assembled the perfect collection of forward and midfield options to execute his high-octane, ‘heavy metal’ style of football, the front three of Mane, Firmino and Salah are possibly the deadliest front three in world football at the moment.
Klopp’s side press high up the pitch to stifle their opponent’s attempts to build-up from the back (something fundamental to Sarri’s team’s style of play) and typically do so in what is known as a ‘vice-press’.
Above: Liverpool wingers Mane and Salah press from out to in to cut off the space out wide and force the opposition to play the ball centrally, backwards or long.
This style of pressing forces the opposition to either play the ball centrally, where Liverpool will typically have the numerical advantage, or play a long direct pass over the high-line of the Liverpool back four.
With their defence now well marshalled by The Netherland’s captain Virgil Van Dijk and a goalkeeper perfectly adept at playing the sweeper-keeper role, Klopp’s side are happy to deal with long passes over their defence.
‘Sarriball’, as Maurizio Sarri’s style of play has been coined, also incorporates a heavy encouragement on pressing high up the pitch.
His teams stay very compact vertically from the centre-backs to the forwards and the defensive line pushes high up the pitch, leaving a lot of space for the goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, to cover should a pass be sent long. Chelsea’s midfielders press the opposition’s defence with some aggression, leaving the number nine free to push forward should the ball be won back and a counter-attack initiated.
Above: Chelsea’s wingers drop back to create a 5 man midfield without the ball as the central attacking midfielders, Kovacic and Barkley lead the press, the Chelsea backline is just out of shot on the left, high up in their own half.
“My idea of football is simple. I like to play possession based football but at very high speed. Quick in transitions.” – Maurizio Sarri. If you’ve been watching the past few Serie A season’s, you’ll have noticed the brilliantly eye-catching football played by Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli as they challenged Juventus for multiple Scudetto titles, although ultimately unsuccessfully. As Sarri puts it himself, his team played fast, dynamic football based on dominating possession and winning the ball high up the pitch.
By all the early signs, this philosophy has quickly transferred to Chelsea as The Blues have won all but 1 of their games so far this season. Chelsea pass the ball relentlessly, Sarri’s game plan includes the idea that if his team keep the ball moving constantly then the opposition will find it far more difficult to press them, a tactic he shares with Pep Guardiola.
The idea when in possession is to get the ball up the pitch as quick as possible but with short quick passes with players positioning themselves in triangular and diamond shapes to advance the ball.
Above: Chelsea’s Midfield triangle has engineered space beyond the Liverpool midfield to create a 4 v 4 in attack for The Blues. Forward movement from Kanté in this position on Saturday will be key for Chelsea.
The Midfield Battle
Both Sarri and Klopp are all but wedded to the 4-3-3 formation (although Liverpool did play 4-2-3-1 last week against Southampton) which includes a holding midfield player at the base of that midfield 3. This role in the respective manager’s systems is perhaps known as a ‘regista’.
A regista is essentially a deep-lying playmaker, a player who can dictate his team’s passing tempo and direction as well as play incisive passes through the opposition defence. Although Cesc Fabregas more than adequately played this role on Wednesday night, Jorginho will very likely be the starter for Chelsea in the holding midfield position with Georginio Wijnaldum most likely a starter in a very similar role for Liverpool.
Above: Jorginho has already broken the Premier League record for the most passes in a game by a single player in only six appearances in the league. He’s likely to out-pass Wijnaldum should both start on Saturday.
In the most advanced midfield roles we see yet another similarity in both sides. Naby Keïta for Liverpool and N’Golo Kanté for Chelsea have many similar footballing traits as well as similar physical attributes, both being small, pacey and have incredible stamina while both also are incredibly efficient tacklers and excel at winning back possession for their side.
Indecently they are also both fairly new to being attacking midfield players having both been primarily utilised previously as ball-winning defensive midfielders.
Both players possess the quality required to make the transition into the more advanced role but form the early signs Naby Keita is enjoying a little more success in the role thus far. N’Golo Kanté is a World Cup winning midfielder and one of the best in world football in the engine room but is so far looking less comfortable in his new role at Chelsea.
Of course both sides have that one special talent who could win the game single-handily should it be a tight affair with Liverpool’s Mo Salah presumably very determined not to be upstaged by Chelsea’s Eden Hazard for the second time this week.
Conclusion
If Wednesday’s night’s cup tie is a taste of what is to come this Saturday then the hype surrounding this fixture will be more than justified. Pep Guardiola or Marcelo Bielsa aside, you would have a difficult task finding two managers less likely to back down from their offensive minded setups than Maurizio Sarri and Jürgen Klopp. Expect a clash of two sides setup in 4-3-3 formations, both playing with relentless speed and aggression.
Both sides could hardly have wished for better starts to their respective campaigns but of course only one team can win and something will have to give in this weekend’s heavyweight clash at Stamford Bridge. With both teams at full strength, Chelsea will likely dominate possession while Jorginho attempts to orchestrate their dominance, the Brazilian-Italian will likely make the most amount of passes in the game.
But with the Liverpool front three back to full strength, a team content to let the opposition have most of the ball and an already proven track record in big away games this season, I can personally see Liverpool edging this tie. Desire for revenge for Wednesday night’s defeat will be fresh in the Liverpool dressing room and I’m tipping Klopp’s men to take the three points in a 3-2 thriller.
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