Thomas Tuchel’s reaction to losing his first choice left back has been to get his team playing in a new formation which allows him to use some of his spare centre backs as left backs in a back 4.
When Marcos Alonso needs a rest, as he did in a couple of the cup games in the last fortnight, a winger (which we have plenty of) can play left wing back in defence, covering a centre back (which we have plenty of) who can move out to more of a traditional left full back role when the Blues have the ball.
Malang Sarr was the man called into action to do that this week, and he might well be used again tomorrow in a similar role against City now that Andreas Christensen has tested positive for Covid.
We won’t know until the teams are out tomorrow, but what we can say for sure is that the rest of Sarr’s season will be at Chelsea, and the rumours from a couple of months ago that he might be loaned out can now be forgotten.
He has played 8 matches now, and we wouldn’t be surprised if that ends up being 15 by May.
