Last season, Chelsea came to us playing pretty much exactly the same way. We changed our formation and approach in order to counteract it. It failed miserably because we forgot to mark their left wing back and he ripped us apart all game.
However, at least we had a plan. An idea of how to play against them. Today, we sent our side out against them with no consideration whatsoever for how they were going to play. His two half time substitutions can only have been in recognition of how much he'd messed up. It was hardly a surprise was it? However, the changes he made only partially made sense and ultimately, on our third change, we lost our shape completely.
In my 'opinion', you can play two ways against this Chelsea side. You can choose to match them up in terms of formation and see how it plays out or you can set up to make them adjust or struggle to play their preferred way. For example, by playing three attackers and having two of them sitting on the flanks forcing their wing backs to play full back. Of course, we did neither.
So the two Chelsea wing backs had masses of space all afternoon and were easy out balls. They outnumbered us in midfield apart from for 20 mins in the second half and strolled through the afternoon.
The score was 1-2 but they could and should have picked us off for at least a couple more. We created little and it was sad to see just how wide a gulf between the sides there was.
There are several players of genuine quality in our squad. Really top players that can mix it with anyone. However, after every game like this, I can almost see another little bit of air disappearing out of their tyres. Soon, they'll just be bang average or demanding moves.
It's such a shame and such a waste. I mean, how many times does someone need to see Slimani and Vardy together before they know that it doesn't work? How many times do you need to see a two man midfield including James to realise it isn't strong enough against any half decent opposition? Would it kill you to have switched an ineffective Gray with Mahrez in the second half to give them both a chance to play on their natural side and maybe give the opposition something to think about?
All this and more from Shakespeare with another boring performance from a boring team playing boring football.
