How Frank Lampard wants his Chelsea team to play

Before we start,

Most of the examples we will use are from the Sheffield game with references to the Burnley game when we used Lampards long preferred 433 formation

Lets begin.

Amidst all the criticism from Chelsea fans on Lampard not having a set style of play, since the switch to the 433. Chelsea are now beginning to have consistency in formation, personnel, and style of play, with Lampard mostly sticking to the same tactics recently.

Firstly,

As we already know, Lampard wants his team to have intensity and energy to press and counter press opponents, which isn't new to us but with the 433 Chelsea look more balanced when trying to press without leaving too much space between their defensive lines as before

Here we see mount loses the ball, but immediately Berge is surrounded by at least 3 Chelsea players who suffocate him and collect the ball. Counter pressing at its best.

Chelsea pressed in a 433 and 442 sometimes and never gave Sheffield space to play out of the back especially in the first half when they have more energy to press. It was also encouraging that Sheffield had space in between the lines to trouble Chelsea, because of their press.

Now we look at how Lampard wants to play with a 433.

3 Forwards with 2 attacking 8's Mount and Kovacic in this case and a DM which is Kante

Chelsea starts with a 433 but end up with a 226 with 2 blocks of 4 in Thiago and Zouma, with Mount and Kante. in front of them. Mount usually takes the place of Chilwell on the left to the receive the ball from the CBs while Chilwell then becomes a left winger at that point.

Silva is very important to how Chelsea start attacks. He initiates attacks with long balls or passing the ball to Mount for a switch of play. Here we immediately see Silva looking for a long ball to Reece to start the attack. Reece wins the header and Ziyech has space

Here too Silva attempts another long ball to Chilwell on the left-wing. Silva attempted a total of 11 long balls in this game with 7 completed shows how much he is encouraged to find a man free in space. and how much he has the quality to do so.

The difference between this season and last season in the way Lampard wants to play is long passes. Chelsea is attempting more long passes to start attacks and switch play. led by Silva, Chilwell, Mount, and Reece. Zouma also does his fair share.

That way Chelsea can speed up play. Last season Chelsea didn't variate their play with long balls as much. most of it was just on the ground which is easier to defend against. The best teams variate their play with Long balls, likes of Bayern, Liverpool do it.

Mount who acts as the more industrious 8 drops deep to collect the ball and also switch play as fast as he possibly can if there is space. Ziyech usually creates space for Reece to receive it by dragging the left back inwards

This switch gives the ball to our more creative players in Reece and Ziyech to cause havoc with their rotations with kova. like here, kova is running wide, Ziyech in the half space and Reece deep. Triangle. Oppositions find this hard to deal with cause you have 2 options to pass

Exactly what happened for Tammy's goal. Reece enters the midfield, Ziyech goes wide and they link up and Kova makes a 3rd man run in behind Sheffields defence, fed by Ziyech and squares it back for Tammy who makes a smart check back to score the cutback

The Goal was well-coached and it could be a sign of things to come especially when Havertz who identifies space well runs those channels. but Kova did brilliantly there

In Lampard's system, the Right side deals more with creating chances cause we have our best creative talents and crossers there in RJ and Ziyech. while the left side deals more with arriving into the box to convert chances. Mostly Chilwell and Werner.

an example of that we see Ziyech attempting his trademark far post cross to Werner and we see Chilwell already just behind him(he is asked a lot to make those runs arriving at the back post by Lampard and the coaching staff)

As easy as it looks in the eye. When done with the speed of passing in full flow it's hard to stop. Liverpool almost attacks in a similar way with continuous switches of play and we can see how devastating it looks when done well.

One good thing about Chelsea is that they can variate their play and not only switch play to create attacks. Tammy can also deep to receive the ball and link up with one of the 8's

As we see here, the fantastic vertical ball from Zouma and Tammy links up well with Kova and Kova knows where Mount is and they link up well too.

and we are in Sheffield's final third.

Chelsea also made use of the 8's in the half spaces with the runs of Mount and Kovacic and also Werner. notice their runs

The important thing here is that Chelsea also have different solutions to apply to different challenges or weaknesses the opposition has. Long ball, balls in between the lines, Switches of play. with all these Chelsea will be very hard to stop when they attack

This is so far without Pulisic and Havertz which will be a deadlier prospect when they come back. Lampard is building an identity in the attack of which we saw some tenets last season but now with better quality players executing it. With even more time it becomes more fluid

likes and are RTs appreciated.

@slimfrik
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@ChelseaCentral_

thoughts and additions? i left somethings out will say them later

@TacticalFaculty
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@CFCRole
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@MedianoEra

Woukd really love your thoughts guys?