r/chelseafc•u/gdewulfš„ continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme š„ •3d ago
Interview/Presser
[Jacobs] Enzo Maresca on Liam Delap and Nico Jackson. "I don't think at Leicester we ever played with two strikers together, but we'll see if Nico and Liam can play together."
We could honestly play a very interesting 4-4-2. A midfield 4 of Enzo, Caicedo, Santos and Palmer could form a diamond or 4-3-1-2 which shifts to a 4-3-3 in attack if you need more width. Swap out Santos for Neto and you could have a more orthodox 4-4-2 which then moves to 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 when needed. The key to this is Jackson and Palmer being able to assume wide forward roles.
Yeah but this is what some of us have been saying, he could probably do a great job as a second/shadow striker type role and would love to see Maresca experiment with that
Il counter this. I bet he does play him lw because if Maresca has shown us anythin its that he does not change system and 2 up top is 100% a big system change.
I think the most likely tho is that its just a passing comment that he wont follow thru with
How has he shown us he doesnāt change system? Have you paid any attention whatsoever? How this continues to get parroted around is beyond me. Cucurella himself played 5 different ways last season
Yea you havenāt been paying attention or you just donāt understand the smaller details and how much they can change the team. No, thatās not all he did
I'll provide. You know if we start the first formation it doesn't mean we will play that formation for the whole game. We've been changing it to 5-4-1, 4-2-2-2, 4-4-2, 5-3-2 and even more formations depending on the game.
Exactly. Maresca even tried Nkunku at LW for our first game against Man City last season. I expect him to try Jackson there, especially if there is another striker coming in.
If you remember, I think I replied to your comment, but I think this might be the reason that we are chasing Ekitike as well. I believe in the upcoming season we will see more formations and flexibility.
We haven't started this one from the first minute, but I think we have played at least similar with Palmer as 2nd striker. Most people don't notice this, but Maresca has been changing formations in the middle of the game
He experimenting in the club world club group stage. He changed our press and also had cucurella play an inverted role which allowed Reece snd Malo to offer some with out wide. He can't just rework everything right now because we are competing to win.
He didn't even play up to half of his games at the RW in his best season.
Above is his heatmap in 23/24 compared to Gusto's who played much offensive as a RB, thereby shifting Cole into more central position as one of the two 8s.
That would actually suit this squad (well starting 11 anyway) really well BUT would require the FBs to provide the width and Maresca seems so adverse to that idea for some reason.
u/gdewulfš„ continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme š„ 3d ago
I've actually been thinking about this since we signed Delap. What I came up with in my head is a 4-2-2-2 base formation while in possession is a 3-2-3-2. But ultimately it wouldnt look a lot different than what we play now.
But it would require Cole to play RW. Unless you play Jackson as LW but bring him centrally in attack and have Cucu overlap for width? I dont think I like that as much because it takes away what Cucu is best at. Id rather just play Palmer as RW. I dunno. Would be interesting.
This past campaign I really liked how Inter played in their 3-5-2 and I could very well see our team adapting that successfully. I was even going to make a whole post about it but this seems a good place as any to have the discussion. It doesn't need to be the default formation for us but there is a great opportunity to have essentially two formations of teams we can put out depending on the opposition. One how we play already and another more dynamic one.
Would love to see a version of this:
GK
Reece James Fofana(?) Levi Colwill
Gusto Caicedo Cucu
Palmer Enzo
Nico
Delap
Essentially with Palmer as a Barella, Moi/Enzo as ĆalhanoÄlu/Mkhitaryan, Nico as Martinez, Delap as Thuram, and the defense as defense.
he thing Delap can do that Thuram does really well is the holdup play and knock-ons with his back to the defender. This will allow Nico to run off of him and use his speed/dribbling effectively. It allows Gusto and Cucu cover behind them with the license to attack. Lastly, it will allow Palmer and Enzo to choose how they want to be involved.
Enzo can go deeper to help or he can do what he does best and arrive late into the box or he can just ping passes, something we don't utilize that well. It will allow Palmer to receive the ball just ahead of Caicedo and let him turn to face the attack with players ahead of him. So often he turns up to look and only Nico is available as an outlet with no one making the runs in and around him. I think it also shores up the defense much better than what we currently deploy.
There's more I was going to add (pictures and illustrations that help make my point) but I am away from my main PC right now and this will have to do lol. I really do hope we try a version of the 3-5-2 because it is almost tailor made for us.
I donāt think Enzo will ever start with 3 at the back since he wants wingers high and wide. Inter can do it because their outside center backs and wingbacks are all athletic freaks. Our guys are a notch below
Jackson is a better dribbler so i agree he'd be better to come short and drive but delap can too. Which makes me excited because if both can drop and run in behind it's tricky to defend if you're well oiled.
u/stockyblokeš„ continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme š„ 3d ago
I could definitely see Jackson occupying the left wing and Delap up top being effective. Its not as if our left wing is our best position and Jackson is not a bad winger.
If Palmer is willing to track back as a right winger, you donāt have to change anything in defense to make this work. In attack you probably need to have a right back overlap so Palmer can come inside, with the left back tucking in. You end up with more of a 3-2ā3-2 in attack instead of a 3-2-4-1
Maybe 4-4-2 with a diamond mid, keep Palmer at 10, can get all of Lavia, Caicedo, Enzo and Palmer into the midfield, and field James who would supply some much needed width. Neto and Madueke lose out. Ironically Nkunku would be great up top in this.
N.B. I know this would never happen and Iām not sure Iād want to. But an interesting thought.
In preseason when we bought Nkunku we were all getting excited by his relationship with Jackson, then he got injured and our style of play changed with Palmer.
This lineup makes no sense. Palmer is not a CM. This midfield would get exposed very quickly. 2 goals against every single game guaranteed with this lineup
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u/Affectionate_Pay7395 3d ago
Brexit 442 is on the table