A change in formation might bring about a change in fortune for Chelsea

The entire premier league seems to have been revolutionized by Conte when he won the 2016-17 title with Chelsea and almost everyone credits the change in formation as the major cause for the clubs success which also saw them go on a 13 game winning run in the league.

Conte who struggled during the starting few games in his debut season in the Premier League quickly changed Chelsea’s default back four formation into 3-4-3 and he took the entire league by storm with that change. Relying heavily on the wing-backs Conte changed the way how the game was perceived.

However, in his second season in the Premier League when he is leading Chelsea as the defending champions, Conte has already tasted three defeats in just eleven games and things just don’t seem to be working in his favour. Perhaps it’s time that he brings about another change in the team’s formation to turn their fortunes around.

Seeing how well, in the recent games, Fabregas, Bakayoko and Kante have been able to link up in the midfield and dominate the game, I believe that if these three become regular starters for Chelsea, the blues can easily have an early impact on every game that they play.

These three players have been easily able to dominate the centre of the field and control the entire tempo of the game which has been crucial in their victory over Manchester United. If Conte needs to start these three players in every game, then it is quite evident that he has to think about a change in formation. He has to go for either a back four formation or the 3-5-2 line-up and I believe that a back four formation would be the best option here.

Let me now list down a few advantages of playing a back four

     1. Chelsea have a lot of defenders in the squad. Azpi, Luiz, Moses, Rudiger, Cahill, Christensen, Zappacosta and Alonso. With so many options, he can easily find at-least three defenders who’d be fit, fresh and ready for every game. Conte’s Full Back options would be Azpi, Moses, Rudiger, Zappacosta and Alonso and his Center Back options would be Luiz, Christensen, Cahill and we can also include Azpi and Rudiger into the mix. A whole lot of options if you ask me.

     2.  If Kante, Bakayoko and Fabregas, all start in a single game, this would give more opportunity for players like Drinkwater, Ampadu and Kenedy to get more play time. Their games will improve, they’ll be happy to get some game time and Chelsea might not lose them to a rival club, like it happened in the case of Matic.

     3. When the Midfield area is well controlled, which it definitely will be, attacking players like Hazard, Willian and Pedro need not think a lot about their defensive duties and can focus only on attacking and this will be a pretty useful strategy when it comes to counter attacks.

These three advantages are really huge especially now that Chelsea are playing in the Champions League. Using a back four formation Conte can easily utilize his full squad to the maximum.

So, should Conte think about another formation change to turn things around at the Stamford Bridge? I definitely think so. What do you think?

That’s it for now folks. Will see you again with another post to entertain you.

Later.