a Twitter thread from @23Pankovski

1.

Chelsea - Spurs analysis THREAD

As always additional comments and RTs are well appreciated. Plan to do this game-by-game.

2.

Just as an introduction I don't plan on "hating" anybody here. I feel this is fair criticism/praise in where we were good and where we were not and so it will be.

Also, for the sake of it I will use freeze frames so don't go off asking why I did it. It's frame by frame always.

3.

So, to start off, in terms of view of the game I thought we looked spectacular and bested Spurs albeit we still lack a killer edge. Most notably, I feel our decision-making remains very poor in terms of progressing the ball into the final third in situations.

4.

I'll start of with a few examples. In this one, Kante steals the ball from Son. The ball is perfectly positioned for him to attempt to drive forward and progress. NG opts to play it safe and moves the ball quickly to Kai setting him back and allowing Spurs to reshape defensively.

5.

Another situation is instances like this. It's a mix between lack of vision, risk-free play, and plain poor footballing mind but these are the types of situations where we fail to capitalize off massively and why people believe the football is "stale".

6.

Yet another instance where players opt against the pass. And while people blame Tuchel for our forwards being "risk-free" this is another example of a forward making the necessary run but not being supplied the pass to set him on a marauding run towards goal.

7.

I often hear that Chelsea do not create "isolations" because of Tuchel's formation. Issue there is that most of our players do not have the ability to take players on effectively in such situations.

8.

In the above example, the problem is that despite his stature Kai is a player capable of moving quick but one that lacks the ability to dribble well past players.Nobody expects Kai to burn Dier in a 1v1 like Messi but he's shown on to his weak foot thus resulting in a poor cross.

9.

Another isolation situation is this. This combines with poor decision-making too. Reece and Ruben are effectively in a 2v1. Ruben stops to take advantage. Reece rushes the pass forcing a cross into an area with no potential receiver.

10.

I do believe that there is still some way to go in terms of gelling between players and also the need for Tuchel to work on them but I do feel he gets a lot of unnecessary flack for it.

11.

What I was impressed by is our ability to move in between various formations to suit our tactical scheme and pressing patterns. When in possession [pic 1] is when the side moved from a 3-4-3 to a 4-3-2-1 effectively. Out of it, the side moved to a 3-4-1-2 and 3-4-3.

12.

The pressing in itself was a sight to see as Chelsea latched on to pressing triggers who are known to not be ideal on the ball[Davies, Sessegnong, Emerson Royal, Hojbjerg]. Playing a very high line and with Ruben aiding both outside and inside they managed to suffocate Spurs.

13.

In the above example, Sterling immediately presses Davies. He forces the ball onto Sessegnon who is very quickly closed down by RLC and tries to shift the ball to Kane/Son who are isolated v RJ,J5, Silva and KK. This was repeated throughout the game be it from midfield or flanks.

14.

As said, Chelsea do look good when they have their regular XI but once again are made to rue missed opportunities in the final third and not just misses like the Havertz one[not shown above].

Even if a large portion of the bale falls on Anthony Taylor the Blues need to improve.

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