Tactical Analysis: Chelsea 0–0 Liverpool

My first tactical analysis piece will be on last month’s League Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea. On the 27th February Liverpool won their first domestic cup competition under Jürgen Klopp following a goalless 120 minutes of football which saw plenty of chances and a few goals disallowed for offside from both teams, penalties then entailed. Every outfield player scored their penalty before Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who was brought on by Thomas Tuchel specifically for the penalty shootout, skied his shot from 12 yards out to hand Liverpool a record ninth League Cup win.

To kick things off, we have the starting lineups:

Chelsea (3–4–2–1) : Édouard Mendy, Antonio Rüdiger, Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah; Marcos Alonso, Mateo Kovačić, N’Golo Kanté, César Azpilicueta; Mason Mount, Christian Pulišić; Kai Havertz.

Liverpool (4–3–3) : Caoimhin Kelleher; Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Joël Matip, Trent Alexander-Arnold; Naby Keïta, Fabinho, Jordan Henderson; Luis Díaz, Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah.

Match Statistics:

Chelsea

Now we’ve got the lineups and match statistics out of the way, we will start by talking about Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea. They set up in a 3–4–2–1 shape and they started the first half well as their front three caused Liverpool’s defence problems with their clever rotations and runs into the half spaces, Kai Havertz regularly dropped deep or drifted wide to allow Mason Mount and Christian Pulišić to push forward and get themselves into dangerous positions. The double pivot often looked to find runners when they could and that allowed their wing-backs to support further up the pitch and this proved to be an effective way for them to regain the ball and press Liverpool’s 4–3–3 defensive block.

Chelsea began the second half strongly, as both Marcos Alonso and César Azpilicueta pushed forward at the same time on multiple occasions and then the front three narrowed themselves to condense Liverpool’s back line while making direct runs in behind, the double pivot had plenty of space on the pitch and that allowed them to be more direct and from that they created some of the best chances of the game through direct balls in behind. As the second half progressed Chelsea continued to use a narrow shape even after Mason Mount and Christian Pulišić were replaced by Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku respectively, the Belgian dropped deep and made some dangerous runs in behind especially in the central areas which was effective late on in the game.

In extra-time, they targeted the wide areas and space on the outside of Liverpool’s centre backs with dangerous runs, this meant that Chelsea could find their attackers quickly and both wing-backs advanced up the pitch to progress around Liverpool’s 4–3–3 narrow defensive shape, but they ultimately couldn’t find the crucial goal to put themselves ahead.

Liverpool

Liverpool set up in a 4–3–3 against Chelsea’s 5–2–3 defensive block and once they settled into the game following Chelsea’s strong start they dominated the remainder of the first half, Liverpool’s midfielders drifted wide on multiple occasions and that stretched Chelsea’s double pivot and left them open. By doing this it also allowed Liverpool’s full-backs to link up with their wingers and cause plenty of problems on each side of the pitch, especially with the pace of Liverpool’s attacking trio. When both Naby Keïta and Jordan Henderson advanced, Chelsea’s midfield struggled to regain control in central midfield and Sadio Mané would drop deep to provide a link for their forward runs through the inside channels with the narrowed positions of Luis Díaz & Mohamed Salah dragging Chelsea’s wing-backs inside. This helped their full-backs advance forward and suffocate Chelsea’s deep block.

Liverpool’s biggest threat was Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah in the second half, to counter Chelsea pushing their wing-backs higher up the pitch Liverpool’s wingers held wide positions and this allowed them to attack Chelsea’s defence following transitions, Sadio Mané’s movement into the midfield helped them deal with Chelsea’s relentless high pressing and by doing this it allowed Liverpool’s wingers to stay wide and this proved to be key for their build-up play, which has been a familiar tactic under the German coach over the years. With Fabinho dropping deep, it allowed Liverpool to have another way of progressing the ball up the pitch and switching the play to either flank.

In extra-time Liverpool switched to a 4–2–3–1 with James Milner joining Fabinho as a double pivot, this gave Liverpool more central protection to deal with Chelsea’s runners and dangerous rotations as they tried to find their attackers quickly as possible, despite all this, Liverpool couldn’t find a goal throughout the game despite the chances they created, but didn’t concede neither.

Summary

In conclusion, the game was one of the best 0–0’s I have watched in recent years, there were plenty of chances and both teams could have scored a few times, the quality of both teams was top class but by extra-time, they both looked tired and the quality of the game obviously dropped. Then came the penalty shootout, which became the highest scoring penalty shootout of all time between two top-flight English teams, 21 penalties scored and one winner, and that was Liverpool to make it nine times League Cup champions.

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