How the Blues weak defense strategy lead to a humiliating defeat

So there we have it! Manchester City return to the top of the table following a thrashing of Chelsea! Sergio Aguero grabbed a hat-trick as the Citizens blitzed the Blues in impressive style, still before let’s take a moment to appreciate Mike Dean. What a man!

 

Three minutes to stoppage time, and Chelsea just wanted this to be over. It’s not been the Blues day. I wonder what will happen to Maurizio Sarri?

 

Chelsea together with their fans never had this rough on the beginning of the year. Zonal marking is Chelsea’s greatest weakness and it must be addressed.  The issues with Chelsea’s zonal defending were visible in the preseason and especially in the early days of the season. Most of those issues are concealed by the Highline and possession. But if a team can stop Chelsea’s possession and push their line back, the zonal defending is exposed. Tottenham pulled off a clinic against Chelsea. The match can be used as a prime example as to A: how to beat a zonal defense and B: why a pure zonal system is not sustainable in the modern game.

 

 

Zonal defending in its purest form is a defender only pressing a player if they have the ball in their zone. Some teams use large zones but most have smaller, overlapping ones. The issue with overlapping zones is who commits when the ball is played into the overlap. More often than not, neither player commits and the opponent breaks through a line.

A small adjustment that is possible is to add man marking elements while keeping the zonal system. But Sarri needs to show the willingness to admit that Sarrismo as it was at Napoli may not be compatible with the Premier League. If he does and adjusts, Chelsea can get back on course. If he does not, then this tenure may end up looking a lot like Rafa Benitez’s or Andre Villas-Boas’.

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