Five games into the Thomas Tuchel era and his train goes on. His teams win against Barnsley wasn’t pretty, but it did the job.
Four wins in now, one draw, one goal conceded and no opposition player has scored past the Chelsea defence. On top of that, the German manager has gotten a proper look at his squad, with every player in the first team getting some form of a look in. Chelsea’s unimpressive, uninspiring, edgy 1-0 win at Oakwell against Barnsley wasn’t spectacular. But, the Blues find themselves in the quarter finals of the FA Cup once more.
Here are five things we learnt from a second trip to Yorkshire in four days.
Ziyech struggles against Barnsley
Hakim Ziyech didn’t enjoy this game. It was a cold, physical encounter on a muddy, bobbly and often unplayable pitch. None of these factors fit the Moroccan’s playstyle. Often such a fluid and extravagant player, Ziyech wasn’t in the game.
It would be harsh to say he wasn’t up for it, but it certainly wasn’t his night. With 25 possession losses and no duels won out of a possible nine, he was peripheral to say the least. It was also noticeable that his replacement, Tino Anjorin, offered a fair deal more on the ball and troubled Barnsley more.
Ziyech has struggled to come to terms with England due to his schedule since leaving Ajax and also his unfortunate struggles with injury. If he can regain his form and get some lowkey minutes under his belt he can be a difference maker. Chelsea are going to need that with the gruelling schedule ahead.
“Tuchel won’t play the youth”
Hindsight is wonderful. I wonder how many Chelsea fans would now love to go back in time and take back their ideas that Tuchel wouldn’t play the youth. His side against Barnsley only included seven academy graduates! Only Six of them got minutes! Anjorin, was only trusted to replace Ziyech!
It would have been easy for Tuchel to bring on Olivier Giroud or even Mateo Kovacic earlier in this feisty clash with Barnsley. His trust in Anjorin was restored as the 19-year old helped to see out a win for the Blues.
Hopefully it is now fairly evident that, although Tuchel wants and needs to win games first and foremost, he has trust in youth. As the manager it is his decision as to how he thinks the squad is best set up to win games in a packed schedule. Tuchel is making use of his right now. The youth are a huge part of it.
A tactical chameleon
This was the first time we have seen Chelsea not only change system in a game, but also be completely fluid. Although the match wasn’t pretty, and was often marred by head-tennis or scrappy passing, there were still signs of progressive tactics.
Chelsea started in a 3-4-3, using Emerson and Marcos Alonso together, with the Italian being deployed as a left-sided centre-back. At half time, Tuchel was brutal in his changes to withdraw Andreas Christensen (though his departure was more down to injury) and Alonso. Chelsea switched to a 4-1-4-1, a formation we haven’t seen any manager use yet this season. Then, to end the game, Kovacic’s introduction saw a change back to a more commonly used 4-3-3.
The overall effectiveness of these changes is hard to quantify as the game was less about tactics and more about mentality and desire to overcome a tricky obstacle. Either way, seeing Tuchel switch up his Chelsea team and continue to push players into different positions to further their development is exciting.
FA Cup experience
Chelsea may have breezed past Morecambe and Luton to reach this round. Both lower league opposition and teams that could have caused an upset. But, the magic of the FA Cup is often more common when Goliath travels to David.
Had the Blues had to face either of their first two FA Cup opponents in the snow, wind or rain, it could have made for much more close and entertaining encounters. The FA Cup isn’t the leveller, it’s often the pitch.
Despite this being hypothetical, it’s hard to imagine Chelsea being as disjointed on a slick Stamford Bridge pitch against the same opponents. The point here being that this is Tuchel’s first proper experience of a true cup tie. It’s one he may not be happy with after but he’ll have learnt a lot from it. Players he can trust, who looks ‘up for it’ and also what the standards are in the cup.
Manchester City went away to Cheltenham last month and were given a true scare. That’s under Pep Guardiola, a domestic cup king. These competitions are so famous because they bring up unexpected results, Tuchel has gotten past this first hurdle.
Spotlight on Billy Vs Barnsley
This may not have been a groundbreaking or startling performance from Billy Gilmour, but it was worth keeping a track of the young Scot. He was always likely to get minutes in this game due to his lack of game time in the league so far under Tuchel. Gilmour is extremely liked and valued in the Chelsea group, it wouldn’t have been a good start to send him out on loan.
It was perhaps the perfect opportunity here for Gilmour to showcase why he deserves to be looked at more seriously. He was arguably Chelsea’s best midfielder on the night, outperforming N’Golo Kante at the same time.
His tenacity was key in Chelsea gaining some form of control as the game wore on. Despite the 19-year-old not setting the world alight like he did this time last year against Liverpool, this was much more mature performance.
Gilmour grew into the game and wasn’t fazed by the physicality, despite being hit hard several times. Premier League games won’t follow the same pattern as this FA Cup tie, but Gilmour’s attitude wouldn’t change. That’s something the Blues will need moving forward and there’s few who provide the same level of fearless intensity as Gilmour.
Written and edited by Tom Coley @tomcoley49
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