Tuchel strategy shines as Chelsea turn back Liverpool!"

Premier League

In the 29th round, Liverpool faced Chelsea at their own Anfield Stadium in a tactical duel between German managers Jurgen Klopp and Tuchel. Liverpool had 54.2% of the ball in their possession, but Chelsea were the ones in control of the game, with Mount scoring the only goal of the match after a sublime cut-out to get past Fabinho, helping Chelsea to victory and a jump in the top four of the table. Liverpool, on the other hand, suffered 5 consecutive defeats and 7 consecutive no wins at home, and the magic of Anfield seems to have disappeared due to the lack of fans.

A look at the starting lineups for both teams (source: whoscored.com)

Werner was the starting arrow for the first time in this match, the first time since Tuchel took over. This tactical arrangement seems to signal Tuchel's intention to use Werner's speed to tear through Liverpool's defense, bringing the counter-attacking tactics he excelled at during his time at Red Bull Leipzig to this match.

Average standings for both teams (source: whoscored.com)

When Liverpool was in possession of the ball, Chelsea adopted a 5-3-2 formation. Werner and Ziyech did not put much pressure on the Liverpool defenders up front, which prevented them from distancing themselves from the rest of the defense, thus limiting the play of the Liverpool midfielders. Unlike in the past, in this game Chelsea immediately used long passes to the front after stealing, looking for Werner who is the fastest and Mount who is looking for space behind the TAA. in the first half, a seemingly offside attack by Werner and a goal by Mount both created trouble for the Liverpool defense by way of long passes and quick counterattacks.

(Source: tactical-board.com)

Jorginho managed to complete 6 long passes in this game and Kante managed to complete 5, while their averages for the season are 3.4 and 2.5 respectively.Rudiger even attempted 13 long passes (average 3.8), but only 3 were successful. This style of play was also the mainstay of Chelsea's offense, which attacked from the left 43% of the time in this game.

Mount kept attacking on the left, which indirectly affected Liverpool's attacking rhythm. TAA was forced to pull back in the middle of the game to form a three-guard defense with the center backs, which prevented Salah from playing the inside forward role that he is good at, and he could only be pressed on the right side of the field, and he only made 2 breakthroughs in the whole game, which were in the relatively non-threatening positions outside the box. In contrast, Mane had 5 breakaways, 3 of which were in or on the edge of the box, and his style of play was not far off from what it used to be. Salah had a mediocre game and was replaced by Jota midway through the second half.

Successful breakout positions, with all five breakouts outside the blue circle recorded by Mane (source: whoscored.com)

In the second half, Chelsea's tempo started to slow down, only passing the ball behind TAA when he pressed to get involved in the attack, allowing Werner to attempt a counterattack. For Liverpool, the trequartista was effectively contained by Chelsea's three at the back, and the substitution of Jota failed to spark much. They still used their usual gegenpress tactics, but didn't create any problems for Chelsea's pass control, and it could be argued that it was because of this tactic, with their defense pressed too high, that they were consistently countered effectively by Werner and Mount. Defensively they were targeted by Chelsea, offensively their play was recognized, and they still couldn't find any other solution, except for the only shot on target in the match in a rush before the end. Despite the final score of 0-1, I think Liverpool led by Klopp was slightly inferior in both offense and defense in this match, and can be said to have lost to Chelsea led by Tuchel.

Liverpool not only had their title dreams shattered after suffering 5 consecutive defeats at home, but now even their Champions League qualification is in jeopardy. Klopp's insistence on a familiar tactical system has yielded poor results. So, whether he will make changes at the end of the season to try to save the season will be the focus of Liverpool's attention.

Chelsea has been undefeated for 10 games since Tuchel took charge, and Tuchel's risky gamble of changing his style of play in this game has hit Liverpool where it hurts perfectly. Facing the question of "mid-season honeymoon period", Tuchel gave the best response in two key battles in the Champions League, defeating Atletico Madrid and beating Liverpool on the road. Chelsea is currently in 4th place, but behind them, Everton and West Ham have one game less to play, and they could overtake them at any time. If their recent form continues, I believe Chelsea will be a strong contender in the Champions League race.