Chelsea's 3-Man Defence Is the Perfect Antidote to Leicester and Jamie Vardy
This weekend the Premier League returns with a battle of two Italian tacticians, as Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City travel to Stamford Bridge to square off against Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. As “welcome back” fixtures go, it’s a tasty one.
Both managers will freely admit they’ve underachieved in league play up until this point. Chelsea might be just three points off the top four, but the humiliation of their 3-0 loss to Arsenal lingers, and it’s obvious the team haven’t successfully melded into Conte’s tactical template just yet. They’re ticking along, but they’re far from top gear.
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Leicester have it even tougher; they’re fighting expectations on multiple fronts. Two wins from two in the UEFA Champions League is great, but they’ve been in the bottom half of the Premier League table for weeks and are yet to register even a point away from home.
With that away record hanging over Ranieri, a Leicester-N’Golo Kante reunion on the cards and the fact the hosts’ recent formation change has only been tested against a subpar Hull City side, this fixture is tough to forecast...but impossible to justify missing.
Chelsea
Chelsea played Leicester in the cup less than a month ago, but much has changed for the Blues since. Conte rolled out the three-man defensive line against Hull City for the first time in his tenure as Chelsea manager. As Matt Law of the Daily Telegraph reported ahead of the game, the Italian opted to do what no manager had done since Andre Villas-Boas to make it work: drop Branislav Ivanovic.
Cesar Azpilicueta slid inside to right-centre-back (RCB), playing alongside David Luiz and Gary Cahill, while Victor Moses filled in at right-wing-back—making his first start for the Blues in over 1,000 days—opposite summer signing Marcos Alonso.
The front three of Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Willian will be split up, as the latter will miss the game for personal reasons, and the combination of Kante and Nemanja Matic has enough legs to bridge together the middle. John Terry will return to the XI, pushing Ivanovic even further from it, and also likely forcing Moses back out of it.
Leicester City
Form has differed wildly when bouncing between European and domestic games for Leicester, who are caught in the midst of varying expectations coming off the back of a title-winning season, but the structure of the team remains similar despite the key departure of Kante.
The Foxes continue to utilise a 4-4-2 formation, pairing Jamie Vardy with a strike partner and Danny Drinkwater with a revolving cast in the centre, and the defensive line looks familiar.
Despite the fact Shinji Okazaki improved Leicester’s play immeasurably when subbed on against Southampton last weekend, Islam Slimani will likely start up top. The Algerian has been distinctly better in the Champions League than in the Premier League, but when you cost £28 million, you’re afforded every chance to settle in.
Defensive configuration
The point of intrigue from Chelsea’s perspective ahead of the lineup announcements is where Terry will play. He could ostensibly play two roles—left-centre-back (LCB) or central-centre-back (CCB)—with differing fortunes; where Conte decides to play him will determine a lot.
The general consensus is that you ask your speedier centre-backs to play in the wider berths. They’re able to operate in the channels and deal with strikers easier, as they’re more mobile, they can close the distance to the wing-back (when the ball is wide) quicker, and it protects the slowest CB as he plays between two.
Undoubtedly, Terry is the slowest centre-back Chelsea have, and it makes sense at a functional level to protect him either side with quicker centre-backs. But David Luiz played CCB against Hull City and played it well, and this is where it gets complicated: Conte, traditionally has often preferred to play the playmaking centre-back in the middle.
If Conte sticks with Luiz in the centre, Terry is at risk of returning to face Jamie Vardy splitting out into the channels. It’s what the English striker does best—his strike partner holds the middle while he darts left or right to find space and receive diagonal passes—and it would, quite simply, crucify Terry no matter how talented he is from a positional standpoint.
It makes much more sense for Luiz, Cahill or even Ivanovic to play the wider positions, bookending Terry in more of a sweeper role. It would mean the playmaking duties shift to a wide CB, but Terry’s a handy passer and might just be able to give the Blues a dual threat in buildup.
More tough decisions lie in wait on the right side of defence. Azpilicueta will likely move from RCB to right-wing-back, displacing Moses, but Conte was effusive in his praise for the latter after shining against Hull, per the Daily Mail. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that both play, therefore retaining their positions, and Cahill drops out, as he’s had an iffy campaign so far.
However they line up, the introduction of Conte’s three-man line is set to be key in nullifying Leicester. Vardy and his plus-one enjoy one-versus-one advantage against any team playing a back four, but with three centre-backs in place, it’ll be two-versus-three with one spare. Essentially, one can always drop off and shadow, or push forward and engage high, still leaving two against one.
Okazaki vs. Slimani
Ranieri has largely stuck with the team and system that brought the Foxes success in 2015-16, with one key change being Kante’s exit. He bought Nampalys Mendy to replace him, but the Frenchman has been plagued by injuries and has hardly featured, forcing Daniel Amartey into a bigger role than expected.
But one area the manager has deviated in is up front; he’s done his best to move away from the Okazaki-based model the Foxes used so heavily last season, instead bulking his strike force with £28 million Slimani and £16 million Ahmed Musa—moves that effectively render Okazaki fourth choice.
Yet each time Okazaki plays, he impresses—and, crucially, Leicester play much better as a team. Slimani’s lack of mobility has been a problem; he looked cumbersome against Manchester United and failed to link the play, while Southampton's Oriol Romeu shackled him when the two sides met before the most recent international break. Musa has all but disappeared off the face of the earth in the meantime.
Meanwhile, Okazaki was the catalyst for much-improved play against Saints, and he also caused Chelsea immense problems in the cup game last month. His movement has the ability to confuse defences; he’s always taking up good positions and drawing markers to him, creating space for others, and he pops up in nifty spots, too.
If there’s anyone who can lure one of Conte’s three centre-backs out of position, therefore opening space for Vardy or Riyad Mahrez to utilise, it’s the Japan international. Slimani hasn’t been clever enough with his movement to do the same, but don’t be surprised if he starts...and Okazaki is sent on later to salvage something.
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