Frank Lampard's pressing system at Chelsea, how it works and its weaknesses [THREAD]

Part 1: Understanding the Structure

Lampard uses an intense man oriented press.

The goal is to minimize passing options by man marking all players while aggressively pressing the man on the ball to force a mistake

Part 2: Weaknesses

The main characteristic of this pressing style is that it's reactive. The players move according to where the opponents are, so the opposition players can control the movement of Chelsea players

(Will give visual examples in Part 3)

Also this defensive setup forces defenders to defend 1v1 situations. If a player loses a 1v1 duel the opposition gain a numerical advantage. However, Rudiger, Zouma, Tomori recovery pace sometimes makes up for this

Another issue is that Chelsea midfielders often join the press to match the number of players in the opposition half and this leaves space in midfield. This space could be covered if the defence line played higher

Part 3: Real Game Examples

Liverpool easily beat Chelsea with previously prepared patterns to pull players out of position and runners to exploit the space.

Arteta was one of the first managers to make use of this weakness. In his first game vs Chelsea he used Özil to pull Tomori out of his position and played long passes to Pepe but this wasnt enough to help Arsenal win. But later Arteta...

Arteta outsmarted Lampard again in the FA cup final. Once again the forwards pulled Chelsea defenders out of position and Arsenal played long balls to the overloaded wings to create many chances.

Space can also be created by pulling the midfielders out. In this clip Kovacic and Kante follow Guendouzi and Torreira before Leno plays a long ball to the forwards.

Jorginho is often scapegoated for this tactical issue.

"Its Jorginho's fault" when he's forced to follow Thiago, isolating Kovacic in midfield.
"Its Jorginho's fault" when Kovacic presses high and Jorginho is isolated failing to defend acres of space.

Another example of Chelsea players closing down opposition players one by one rather than defending space

Jorginho, Azpi, Zouma.... forced to follow the Wolves players

After the FA cup final Im convinced opponents will play to Chelsea's weaknesses rather than playing their own game, Frank Lampard will be "figured out" unless he fixes this and all other tactical problems we've seen.

Thats all I have to say, RT for more reach