Tuchel describes Chelsea’s formation as a 4-1-4-1 and says it’s an option for the future

Thomas Tuchel has just taken his press conference after the win over Tottenham, and he was asked about the formation his side had used.

It was described as a 433 mostly, but Tuchel himself called it a 4-1-4-1. It saw Marcos Alonso benched for Malang Sarr and Cesar Azpilicueta pulled back to a more solid full back role on the other side in a back 4.

The 1 would be Jorginho, with no Kante in the team, and instead Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount running as dual 8s.

Tuchel’s take on how it came about and how it performed were as follows, as quotes by Football.London:

“We changed a bit the tactics in the first match against Tottenham and they adapted to it. We thought it could give us solutions to escape the high pressing, put the game in the opponent’s half, and have a bit more width without having wing backs.

“Trevoh [Chalobah] had only one training session and Andreas Christensen, a key player, was not available. For a back three, you need three central defenders and two wings backs.

“We thought today that we could play in a 4-1-4-1 to cause them problems. The team did well and it gives us another option, so well done.”

He still makes it sound like the team will return to a 343 when Chalobah or Christensen is available again, but for as long as they’re out, this allows us to take some different angles in attack.

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