Chelsea vs Bayern Munich: Tactical Preview.

Chelsea hosted Bayern Munich at the Stamford Bridge for the UEFA Champions League last 16 tie. This game involved a lot of tactical flexibility. First let's see how the teams lined-up. 

 Bayern Munich players celebrating. Image: Getty Images. 


Frank Lampard's Chelsea lined up in their 4-3-3 formation with Olivier Giroud, Mason Mount and Recce James lead the attacks. This was more of a 3-4-2-1 formation as Marcos Alonso and Recce James mostly played as flying wing backs. 

On the other hand, Hansi Flick's Bayern Munich used a 4-2-3-1 formation with Joshua Kimich and Thiago Alcantara taking total control in the midfield. During attacks, Bayern Munich lined up in a 3-2-5 and defended in a 4-1-4-1 formation. 

Since the begining of the match, both teams intentions were displayed during kick off. Bayern attacked as Chelsea waited to hit them on quick counter-attacks.  

Why Chelsea Lost:

Disorganized pressing.

When Chelsea lost possession, only the midfield moved up to support the press while the defence sat back. Chelsea's defence feared Bayern Munich might choose to go long and punish them. 
This always left a big gap between the midfield and the defence which was utilised well by Thomas Muller and Thiago Alcantara. After Bayern Munich has found a way past Chelsea's midfield, the defence was easily exposed.

Bayern Munich's Long Balls Tactic. 

The Bavarians completed a total of 47 long balls out of 75 compared to Chelsea's 24 out of 49. Bayern Munich always built-up their attacks from the back. They managed that because Chelsea normally play with a high defensive line and that's the reason why the Bavarians used long balls to find Lewandowsky behind the Chelsea's defensive line. 

Kimich and Alcantara midfield dominance. 

The duo did the job of outclassing Chelsea's midfield trio (Jorginho, Barkley and Kovaçic).
Alcantara used to drop between Alaba and Jerome Boateng during the build-up phase. Barkley was assigned the duty of marking him but the Bavarians had another option.

Thiago Alcantara on action vs Chelsea. Source:Bayern Munich facebook page. 


Joshua Kimich dropped too thus pulling all the opposition midfielders and creating spaces for Thomas Muller to occupy the half space. 

Quick One touch Passes from Bayern Munich. 

Chelsea is one of the teams with best midfield in EPL and Bayern Munich had done their assignment very well. That's why they opted to use quick one touch passes to outdo the midfield and it worked. Mostly, Bayern Munich used the right flank where Recce James and Azpilicueta were playing due to Serge Gnabry and Alphonso Davies who are good dribblers. Chelsea conceded 2 goals from the one touch pass build up. 

Frank Lampard's poor in-game management. 

The Chelsea boss has been criticised by football fans and analysts due to his poor in-game management. In this game, Frank Lampard failed to give Hans answers in terms of tactics. 

Frank Lampard has been criticised by Football analysts due to his poor in-game management. Source: Football.London


CONCLUSION:

Chelsea have a mountain to climb after suffering a 3-0 goal defeat from Bayern Munich. They will need to overturn this by scoring 4-0 in Germany or win 3-0 and force them into extra-time. Can Chelsea shock the world when they visit Allianz Arena? 

Comment below and let mw know!

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