Chelsea have significantly toned down their pressing this season. It has gone under-the-radar a bit but we are a lot more pragmatic in the way we play, picking our moments better instead of rushing out.

The eye test backs it up while watching us and the stats do too.

Total pressures per 90 has fallen from 163.1 in 19-20 to 132 now, or by 19%.

Final third pressures p90 has fallen from 40.6 to 29.8, or by 27%.

We are allowing 10.58 passes per defensive action this season, compared to 9.01 in 19-20. That's a 15% increase.

This is a big deal.

Imagine there are 20 defensive actions per game. If we allow 15% more passes per defensive action compared to last season, we are allowing 30 more passes per game.

However, the 30 passes we are allowing come in less dangerous areas due to a more compact structure.

So why exactly has Lampard adopted this strategy? Well, there are two reasons.

Firstly, the schedule. Pressing at high-intensity with our packed schedule exposes players to injuries and fatigue.

Second is to minimize the number of "open" games.

Open games are games where both teams have plenty of chances. They're fine for a team which wants top 4 but a team that has big ambitions has to cut them.

With virtually no training time to get our new signings used to our pressing schemes, a more pragmatic approach makes sense.

Things might change with more time on the training ground in the short- and long-terms but I'm a big fan of this approach. I hope it's a case of evolution rather than revolution from here.

We've cut down a lot of our naivety in terms of how we operate without the ball.