Let's do wc edition. A simple analysis on England vs Ghana. It is very straight forward.

Ghana defend in 451 low block , England attack in 343 shape. It is very difficult to attack with 7 player against 9 man. It is that simple. Against 1 st you want to leave only two CB but TT want to be conservative so he always leave 3 behind.

I had this one prepared before which is Portugal vs Congo.

After this game, many fans criticize Martinez for no midfield but Congo defended in 532 shape so the space is all in the wide area. You can see the space that both Portugal fb has.

The biggest problem is up top. Silva Bruno n cr7 are simply too slow. Their only two player who can really run are neto n Mendes.

This is why I said they are fine. They need to play neto to the right and bring a more explosive player either for Bruno, cr or silva.

Let's do simple analysis on England game. England scored at 55'

England was still trying to press higher but this happen at 56' min. Brilliant tackle by Spence but that is 💀 💀 . Being this open going 1-0 up in semi final after 55' was crazy.

So England got into low block.

That was Gordon playing a wb/fb because now Argentina pushed their player up which bring Gordon to defend. If your winger had to play fb/wb why not just play wb/fb there.

So TT brought it Konsa for Gordon and swirtched to 532. There was another problem called Messi. Do you make sure the ball doesn't get to Messi or just play normal defense.

Rice was the lcm and he was following Messi in the middle. The problem now, England was extremely narrow in the middle.

Now you see de Paul free on the far side and Spence couldn't close him down because there was somebody on the sideline. De Paul crossed and McCallister had a free header. So 532 didn't work as England was overloaded on the right side.

So England played 541.

England no longer overloaded on the right hand side.

Messi go the ball and he move left and a simple game on the right and switch from right to left and Messi made Fabregasesque pass and Argentina almost scored.

Honestly, it is hard to say what TT need to do. Some say TT need to bring Rashford/Watkins. Not sure those two are known to be disciplined defensively and you have to be in this case. Messi is dropping as dm and keep making Fabregasesque pass and it will be your job to mark him.

So I finally get to watch our game vs spurs. System wise, it is a simple 442/4231 both offensively and defensively, very similar to poch.

Defensively

Nothing to talk about, 442.

But the effort from the front 4 for Spurs 1st goal was very bad.

Yes lavia/Essugo should have done better but you want more from palmer/jp. If palmer doesn't want to defend then our st need to run more.

Offensively

It is basic 442 with Palmer free to move around.

That is Palmer receiving the ball on the right. Many will say that is normal but it isn't because you have already have 2 "attacker" on the right (Palestra & Estevao) so you have 1 less player on the left.

Palmer drop and you have Hato, a lcb sprinting forward.

This time our game vs Sociedad. It was basically a 343 with Neto and Palestra as wb.

The fun thing with Alonso is that he is not super rigid manager. Sometimes you build with basic 3-2. Sometimes with 4-1, hopefully I don't read anymore of midifelder need to be 2 100% time, dinosaur tactic bs.

That is Caicedo dropping as lcb and Fofana n Colwill playing as fb.

What I also like is this fun stuff with Colwill (lcb) pushing up creating a 3v3. I prefer this to Maresca rigid 3box3 😅😴 😴 😴

I only watch the 1st half, I don't think we played that well. I don't think we created much. The 1st goal was good pass from James, it created chaos so Sociedad lb was late but neto was still far away. Good cross

But this is 4v2, two defender on Jp, two on rogers. You expected your defender to handle this easily. They didn't and Rogers score a tap in.

Now let's talk about defense. I don't think we defended that well. 2 min into the game, from Sociedad gk.

That should be a tasty pass to the middle but Sociedad cb didn't see him. Doesn't matter.

Palestra is late

Many talk about cb, cb. 😂😂😂 Now good luck if you are cb. The ball is not far and that is 3v3 on the halfway line with little pressure on the ball.

Palestra need to work on his defense and Roger need to be more active defensively.

Yes that is kubo (I think) receiving the ball quite far from the goal and he can dribble until inside our box.

Kubo once again receive the ball outwide, Palestra allow him to cut inside and Roger doesn't help. There is very dangerous 3v2on the other side.

Imo the performance on the 1st half wasn't great at all. If this is the pressing plan then Roger n Palmer need to run back more.

3 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Palestra is late

Many talk about cb, cb. 😂😂😂 Now good luck if you are cb. The ball is not far and that is 3v3 on the halfway line with little pressure on the ball.

Palestra need to work on his defense and Roger need to be more active defensively.

Yes that is kubo (I think) receiving the ball quite far from the goal and he can dribble until inside our box.

Kubo once again receive the ball outwide, Palestra allow him to cut inside and Roger doesn't help. There is very dangerous 3v2on the other side.

These two stills have me worried, there are huge gaps between the defenders. Even if Palestra doesn't get beaten, Kubo just needs to make a yard of space and then it's a relatively simple cross to two strikers in acres of space. Fofana is on his heels at the back-post, he isn't covering. In Tuchel and Conte's more defensive 3-atb systems, we saw either Matic or Jorginho drop deeper to form a 3rd CB.

Rogers needs to get back to rush Kubo into making a play. He doesn't need to defend directly but I think the issue with our pressing in general seems to be that our players never get close enough to apply pressure.

On 17/08/2026 at 10:57, SydneyChelsea said:

These two stills have me worried, there are huge gaps between the defenders. Even if Palestra doesn't get beaten, Kubo just needs to make a yard of space and then it's a relatively simple cross to two strikers in acres of space. Fofana is on his heels at the back-post, he isn't covering. In Tuchel and Conte's more defensive 3-atb systems, we saw either Matic or Jorginho drop deeper to form a 3rd CB.

Rogers needs to get back to rush Kubo into making a play. He doesn't need to defend directly but I think the issue with our pressing in general seems to be that our players never get close enough to apply pressure.

It is pre season so I won't be too worried about player running but it is quite clear that Palestra defending need a lot of work.

Finally new season start and I can do proper analysis on real game.

Let me start on Fulham first. I have never watched arbeloa team but this is what I called tactico football.

Super wide build up, two CB very wide with gk as the "middle" cb. I don't have to tell you why this is very risky.

You can already see the problem. You basically cannot have any turnover as we have 3 attacker in the middle vs 0/1 defender. Somebody decided to kick a bad long ball.

It is not even close.

Death . Fulham RCB had just received the ball all the way on the right sideline, of course he is late.

Now let's talk about Chelsea.

Offensively, it is similar to the post that I wrote before. 343 but sometimes one of the dm drop so you build in 4-1 shape. This suit James as he is not a midfielder (he is not comfortable receiving the ball with back to goal) but this also mean Colwill will receive the ball in lb position, not sure this suit him.

Not sure there is much to talk about offensively. The front 3 were good Palmer was fantastic. But Fulham gameplan was so strange. Many say we look dangerous in transition but a lof of them were harmless turnover. Fulham ran this very risky build up where they empty the middle so when the lost the ball 💀💀 💀 bizzare stuff.

Playing with just 3 attacker is very hard. Palmer many times managed to get something even when he was being double teamed but this is not a good plan long term. Preferably, you want to get something either from your wb or from your midfield.

Let's talk about defensively, it was legit 532 mid block.

It is rare to see big team do this anymore. When you have a lot of talent especially attacker, most of them are not comfortable being asked to defend for long period of time so you run press ball but Alonso played 6 defenders + a dm.

The 1st goal was bad mistake by sanchez and Rogers being late defensively.

2nd goal was 100% on Colwill. Most of the time when fans blame cb, it is not that simple because if you expose them any CB will be poor but this time, it is on Colwill. It is very hard to protect wide cb from long ball, you just need to win your duel.

It was a good result and imo fine perfomance but not sure I like 6 defender. It got nothing to do with the system, we simply have too many attackers to play this system.

Why do we look good in offense? Arbeloa football is just insane. Our first goal is simply not possible.

The same thing for our 3rd goal.

This is impossible.

Edited Wednesday at 20:312 days by Bob stark

14 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Why do we look good in offense? Arbeloa football is just insane. Our first goal is simply not possible.

The same thing for our 3rd goal.

This is impossible.

I don't think it is impossible because you just posted 2 examples of us doing it

14 hours ago, All Barco no bite said:

I don't think it is impossible because you just posted 2 examples of us doing it

This is not about Chelsea, it is about how Fulham defend and attack.

Edited yesterday at 00:561 day by Bob stark

33 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

This is not about Chelsea, it is about how Fulham defend and attack.

It's high-risk, high-reward. It was a bad pass that led to the first goal, an error rather than a tactical failing. Berge defended shockingly there, failing to anticipate Lacroix's clearance and then hesitating to deal with it.

Lacroix also deserves a tonne of credit defending the space correctly and calmly getting the ball down and forward towards Palmer instead of booting it into the stand, and Berge's hesitation is what let Palmer get on the ball in the first place. There also needs to be a tonne of credit going Palmer's way, if you look at the close up he anticipates the moment when he realises Lacroix is going to clear and scans to see exactly where Pedro is. Most players, 20 seconds into a game, are concerned about retaining possession and not pissing off their manager, and those inclined to attack likely dribble and take the shot themselves instead of the first time pass. Palmer sees the opportunity and seizes it; only Bruno Fernandes or Martin Odegaard would ever attempt a similar play.

When it works for Fulham, and it probably will a few times this season, they are going to overload most teams out wide and completely bypass the 'box midfield' that PL clubs are obsessed with. If that ball gets through to Robinson or Garcia through the centre they have 3 v 1 or 4 v 2 and most teams are screwed.

Even for the second goal, there are not many wingers in this league that are going to beat Calvin Bassey to a header; Rogers is 6ft 2" and as good in the air as any centre-forward in this league not called Haaland. Castagne is most at fault here, with Bassey out of position he should have been pelting back full speed to deal with the situation but for some reason he stays behind Rogers?

Again Berge was at fault again thinking he could simply jockey Joao Pedro. Josh King has gone AWOL upfield because he's more interested in self-validation for last year's VAR fiasco than seeing his team win. Palmer is free to run a training lap from right to left because there are no DMs or fullbacks. This has less to do with the tactic itself and more to do with Fulham over-extending and failing to seize the moment.

In saying that, it's also on Arbeola to realise that King and Berge are not Tchouameni and Valverde, and they don't have the ability to cover gaps the size of the Amazon Basin.

Edited yesterday at 01:501 day by SydneyChelsea