Champions League Quarterfinal: Chelsea vs. Manchester United Tactical Analysis

The UEFA Champions League quarterfinal draw sprung up some tantalising encounters, especially the matchup between bitter Premier League rivals Chelsea and Manchester United.

The two have yet to play each other for a second time in the Premier League as well, meaning the Blues have the chance to manipulate United's season, and vice versa if Chelsea are struggling to stay in the top four. 

Whilst the Stamford Bridge club seem to have lost their aura from seasons gone by and were largely uninspiring against FC Copenhagen, they've still beaten the Red Devils in the only important match between the two this season.

Thus it's a tie that will hang in the balance and can swing either way, with United going into the first game at Stamford Bridge as the form team (if they don't trip up against modest league opposition until the first leg on April 5-6th), but Chelsea as the team with the psychological advantage.

And in the return leg a week later, much will depend on whether United get beaten at Stamford Bridge or not. If they hold out for a draw or even a win in London, they'll most likely go back to Old Trafford full of confidence and sail through to the semis. If they lose at the Bridge however, it's Chelsea's tie for the taking.  

In any case, here's some of the likely tactics Carlo Ancelotti and Sir Alex Ferguson will employ, certainly in the first leg, if not both.

Formations and Overall Play

On the surface, it's likely Chelsea will stick with their famed 4-3-3 set-up under Carlo Ancelotti.

The midfield will consist of a holding midfielder (Michael Essien) to give protection to the centre backs and allow the fullbacks to move forward, an attacking midfielder to take up the playmaker role (Frank Lampard) and a box-to-box player to be an extra option in the final third and help out defensively in the Blues' own final third (Ramires).

It'll be a packed central midfield that, more than anything, will be tough to break down defensively, with the wing play coming from the fullbacks and two attacking wingers.   

Up front, it seems unlikely both Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba will start, as one of the two will be a central striker supported on both sides by Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka most likely. 

But the most clever part of Ancelotti's usual set-up is that he allows Anelka to drift in from the right, essentially leaving a massive gap on the right wing with just the right-back there. 

This means opponents usually pile players to that side, but with the packed midfield and a winger (usually the left-sided one, i.e. Malouda) tracking back, Chelsea are able to defend appropriately, then break on the opposition's empty left-wing. 

Overall, it's a good general system from Ancelotti that gives any team a problem if the best starting 11 is playing, and if all the players are fit, motivated and full of confidence and self-efficacy (i.e. belief), which is something that hasn't happened enough for Chelsea this season.

As for Manchester United, it will most likely be a simple, no-frills 4-4-1-1 with Wayne Rooney possibly playing that role between the defensive and midfield lines, making him extremely difficult to mark while Javier Hernandez will play further up, using his pace and clever movement to try and take advantage of the slower Chelsea centre-backs in Branislav Ivanovic (if he plays) and John Terry (especially).

In the true United way, the wingers (Nani and Antonio Valencia) will work in tandem with the fullbacks, while in the centre, a holding midfielder (Michael Carrick) will try to keep the opponent's playmaker (Lampard) at bay whilst his midfield partner (Paul Scholes) will try and feed the ball to Rooney and pose problems for their defensive midfielder (Essien).    

It means Ramires could well get a free role in midfield for Chelsea, with his (and Chelsea's) success dependant on whether United's attackers can track back well enough, and whether one of the fullbacks can provide cover centrally if the Blues commit men forward.

Tempo

One of the most important tactics for a manager and his technical staff is getting the tempo right for his team at the start the game and making sure they finish the game absolutely spot on.

It's one of the tactics players don't see on the board in the pre-match brief, in the dressing room before the game and at halftime, and it's not something the manager or his assistant can put on their notepads to show the players and substitutes before they play.

In the first leg, it's highly unlikely Carlo Ancelotti will get his Chelsea team to start with a high tempo, especially considering it's a Champions League match, where the tie is won over 180 minutes, not 90.

In true Ancelotti style, the Blues will probably try to pass the ball around, let everyone have a touch and just wait for the right moment to try and score instead of forcing it, for at least the first 20 minutes.

Psychologically it settles any nerves Ancelotti's men might have, while it sends the opposition into a bit of a lull, almost falsely letting them think it could be a fairly easy (i.e. not so physically demanding) game.

Then, for about a 10-minute spell in the middle of the first half, Chelsea will most likely burst into action and bombard the United defence as much as they can, in the hope the sudden change in pace will catch the Red Devils out and lead to potentially fatal lapses in concentration.

The first-half tempo is always most important as that's the main time teams get to fully insert their impression on the game, with the first goal usually a determining factor in who will win the game, as it gives away the tempo the opponents will play at (as they look to play faster, trying to equalise, of course).

Of course tempo counts for nothing if the two teams aren't very equally matched (i.e. a lower La Liga team going to Barcelona's Camp Nou slaughterhouse), but in this case, United and Chelsea are very equal in two anything-can-happen matches.

Depending on the scoreline in the second-half, if Chelsea are leading they could well slow the tempo knowing any lead going into the game at Old Trafford is vital, but if they're drawing or even losing then Ancelotti will seek to repeat his team's first-half tempo most likely, but have two 10-minute spells of sustained pressure, with one of course being at the end.

However, as Carlo Ancelotti has gotten his team's tempo disastrously wrong at times this season (especially against Sunderland, Arsenal and Liverpool) where they've been caught out and sometimes just lacking energy, Sir Alex Ferguson might well let Chelsea dictate the tempo over his United team in the first leg.

Considering the Blues are such a ball-playing side at home, it will be tough for Manchester United to assert their own tempo on the game and will probably drain their energy reserves too much.

Being the mastermind he is, Sir Alex could let Chelsea destroy themselves at home and take advantage before coming back to Old Trafford and letting his United team dictate and finish off the job.

Other Tactics

There will be millions of tactics zinging through the minds of both managers and their technical staff ahead of the quarterfinal, but a few basics will be things like passing and tackling.

Carlo Ancelotti will most likely tell his players to soften it down in the tackle for the opening stages of the first-half, while being more robust when their tempo increases, in an attempt to unsettle and frustrate United psychologically.

Chelsea's tackling will most likely become more robust with stronger challenges as their tempo increases, while United will probably go in strong from the start to unsettle the hosts, especially at the start of the game when players are most fragile mentally, before toning it down when they take the lead. 

And in terms of passing, Chelsea will undoubtedly be more focused to the left, where they can get Ashley Cole working in tandem with Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard, and can allow Nicolas Anelka to drop into his favourite role in the centre between the lines, giving the Blues' attack as many options as possible.

United on the other hand will probably be quite unpredictable, with Scholes or Carrick feeding the ball to Rooney centrally who can use the wingers or Hernandez, meaning the Chelsea players won't know who to mark and who to leave, something which can cause considerable problems defensively.

Overall, it will be a tactical minefield both at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford, and if both sets of players carry out their manager's respective orders, these two matches will both be one hell of a spectacle!

Follow Yoosof Farah on Twitter @TheSportsJourno