Champions League

Chelsea V Barcelona

Tuesday, 2.45pm @ Stamford Bridge

Read a good, brief analysis of some of the defensive changes at Chelsea since AVB was sacked and Di Matteo took over at Zonal Marking.  For the match with Barca Tuesday, I thought it would be a good addition to ZM's comments to add these pictures for anyone thinking of watching.  The big questions left unanswered at this time are how high a line Chelsea will dare to hold (presuming ZM is right about the arrangement of the team) and what they'll do about keeping Messi from getting the ball.  Or, more accurately, where they'll "live" with him getting the ball- he's going to get it, the hope will be to control where he gets it.
*additional preview by Michael Cox here (added Tuesday, 11.15AM)

Here's Chelsea's new-ish formation, a more conventional (and pragmatic...indicating a sluggish first leg, perhaps?) defense with two lines of four defending.  The trick is to limit the space between the center backs and the holding mids  (yellow box).











If the two holding mids drop toward the center backs, Messi will find little room to get the ball in front of the back four, and so he'll have to come quite deep into his own midfield to find the ball.  Which should work OK for managing his touches from Chelsea's perspective.  The two problems this brings up are the three midfielders will have lots of room and time to both just hang on to the ball and pick the back line apart, and, 2, the flanks will be a 2v2 situation and someone like Alves or Tello, Keita  (and on and on...) could get into very dangerous situations from wide areas.  The wing backs for Chelsea will have to be very sharp.



If Messi comes deep, there will be a block of four central defenders between him and the goal.  But if the attack can expose the flanks, he's awfully good at making runs in the box for balls in from wide areas.

The misery of dealing with hugely talented, and well-organized sides.

Good luck, Chelsea!