He needs no introduction does he? Juan Mata was the only silver lining to our rather disappointing league performance last year and this year has epitomized everything the Chelsea holy trinity stands for.
This is his natural movement –
As clearly seen, he starts on the right wing. A big question that has always been asked is why is a left footed player on the right flank? It is just because this allows Mata to cut in and exchange roles with Hazard and Oscar all over the pitch. Mata, Hazard and Oscar, all like the No.10 role and this was a problem Di Matteo had to answer. So he built a rigid pivot defensive structure, with one player able to go front and drift wide for defensive help and the other player able to push deeper to help defense, right behind a structure of 3 players who play free-flowing football with no fixed roles. This also involves a technical striker upfront who is willing to come deep to help in possession and drift wide for players to cut in as the defensive fullbacks make forward attacking runs.
This is Mata’s attacking heat-map taken from all his games from the start of this season to the Capital One Cup clash against Manchester United that ended 5-4 (including) .
As it can be seen, Mata’s dominant position is in the No.10 role and this is why I applaud Di Matteo. If you were to check the heat-maps for Oscar and Hazard, it would be the exact same. The free-flowing , passing and intelligent off the ball movements makes everything look very beautiful. This helps all the 3 players including the striker up front to get into scoring position but mostly they find themselves in positions where they can pass rather than score. Reason why Chelsea have over 14 different scorers so far. This heat-map also clearly shows that Mata cuts in very much, which causes Chelsea a problem of width. Solving this problem was easy as the full-backs pushed forward during the attack phase along with one of the pivot players, while the most defensive minded pivot player, pushed back to form a 3-man defense.
Now lets have a look at how Chelsea switches into a counter-attacking phase, which has helped quite a number of goals –
As seen the three attacking players move up front. This happens because Ivanovic and Cole or whoever is our full-back will not be there for width, hence Mata, Hazard and Oscar have to move to the flanks while one of them moves up front with Torres. Moreover Ramires pushes up front with his pace while Mikel holds the middle of the park. Chelsea’s counter-attacking philosophy does not believe in playing it through the middle but more on moving to the flanks, quickly cutting in and then drifting wide again. Mata is integral as his cutting in and drifting attitude helps us out at the right. Hazard loves to be in the middle and will probably stick to the center than go to the left. 17,9,11,10 and 7. These roles are not fixed at all, anyone can take up any role. That’s the beauty of it.
Come on Chelsea !
Sherry Philips ( @bluebloodSherry ), Deputy Editor
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Where have you been? Been reading articles here and notice you've not been writing much lately. What's your take on the 4-2-2-2 formation one of our readers suggested?
Where have you been? Been reading articles here and notice you've not been writing much lately. What's your take on the 4-2-2-2 formation one of our readers suggested?
I suggest u take care in how u analyse dis stuff it can be our weaxkness u no don't draw any player run nt good belive mi
I suggest u take care in how u analyse dis stuff it can be our weaxkness u no don't draw any player run nt good belive mi
I suggest u take care in how u analyse dis stuff it can be our weaxkness u no don't draw any player run nt good belive mi
I suggest u take care in how u analyse dis stuff it can be our weaxkness u no don't draw any player run nt good belive mi
Been a wee bit busy !
4-2-2-2, might work, if we consider the fact that the players can get adapted to it. Plus, we could make it 4-2-2-1(1) with Torres in the second striker role and Sturridge as our main CF. This way we could exploit both their advantages !
Been a wee bit busy !
4-2-2-2, might work, if we consider the fact that the players can get adapted to it. Plus, we could make it 4-2-2-1(1) with Torres in the second striker role and Sturridge as our main CF. This way we could exploit both their advantages !
Mata certainly has been the go to man for chelsea and he has not disappointed a little however we seem to struggle without him…look at the example.of city being overly dependent upon silva nd now suffering…i cant understand the fact y is marko marin not playing…he had a fantastic preseason and ticks all the box for playing in current chelsea side…whenever mata is injured or rested we could have played him…he along with other two of our famtastic trio or even with moses could be great and i personally think mata is playing too much rusking burnout.
Mata certainly has been the go to man for chelsea and he has not disappointed a little however we seem to struggle without him…look at the example.of city being overly dependent upon silva nd now suffering…i cant understand the fact y is marko marin not playing…he had a fantastic preseason and ticks all the box for playing in current chelsea side…whenever mata is injured or rested we could have played him…he along with other two of our famtastic trio or even with moses could be great and i personally think mata is playing too much rusking burnout.
If there is on thing I dont understand about RDM, is his decision not to play Marin, the man is a quality player. I actually think that the combo of Marin-Piazon-Moses could be the perfect replacement for MAZACAR when we need to rest them. At the we play them most games and i dont think we giving the other lads enough game time to help their progression. Yes momentum is neccesary and building a great partnership alternative to Mazacar will prove vital to our long term success.
If there is on thing I dont understand about RDM, is his decision not to play Marin, the man is a quality player. I actually think that the combo of Marin-Piazon-Moses could be the perfect replacement for MAZACAR when we need to rest them. At the we play them most games and i dont think we giving the other lads enough game time to help their progression. Yes momentum is neccesary and building a great partnership alternative to Mazacar will prove vital to our long term success.