Chelsea has suddenly resolved their shape, just in the perfect time of the season.
The Blues from Enzo Maresca is at a point of five victories in a row in all competitions and fly to Newcastle on Sunday for an important collision in the fight for Champions League places.
So far it was a disappointing season for Chelsea, with their early title loading at the beginning of 2025 in pieces.
The rigid tactics of Maresca came under fire from blues fans who are used to winning trophies under Roman Abramovich.
Some even started calling on a new change in manager, only 12 months after former Tottenham Mauricio Pochettino was shown ruthlessly.
But in recent weeks the form has returned, not in the last place of Talisman Cole Palmer, who ended his 18-game goal drought with a penalty against champions Liverpool last weekend.
The tactical changes of Maresca – partly due to the timely return to fitness of midfielder Romeo Lavia – are the key to the revival of Chelsea in shape.
But the improvement of Chelsea has also gave a slight to their weaknesses.
In particular, there are two stars of the side – who start each game when fit – that stop the team.
Chelsea should try to buy two new players in the summer to be considered real title candidates next season.
Moises Caicedo as an inverting fullback
One of the most interesting tactical tweaks in Marcesca was in the use of the Ecuador midfielder Moises Caicedo as a right back in their rear four system.
While Caicedo plays as a more traditional fullback when Chelsea defends, he consistently comes to midfield when they win.
This means that, together with Lavia who is back in the team after a long spell with injury, Chelsea has two strong players at the foot of their midfield with Enzo Fernandez and then free to push higher. What we now see from Chelsea is a framework for midfield with Lavia and Caicedo at the base and Fernandez and Palmer in higher positions.
The intelligence and understanding of Caicedo are the key to Chelsea to make this happen.
When Caicedo comes in, it is difficult to pick up and he can regularly receive the ball in space before he can pass the ball forward.
So far, Maresca has done great work in terms of teaching Caicedo de Timing and the triggers to go from the right -hand position to midfield.
The Ecuadorian International has always been a player who is good against the ball and in duels.
But his ability to come in and influence the game has so far been one of the keys for Chelsea as they are improved.
Palmer and Fernandez as High 8s
As part of Maresca's decision to enter Caicedo to a more structured midfield role, a change in the role of Fernandez has meant.
While we saw early in his career in Chelsea Fernandez as a deep midfielder as a deep 8 or even as a 6, the World Cup winner has been unlocked because he has been moved to higher positions more consistently.
Palmer has also seen his role change throughout the season after he was initially largely used as a narrow right winger.
Now he is now placed more naturally as a central attacking midfielder – almost as a NO10.
With Fernandez who is pushed higher when Chelsea is in possession, we now see that the two midfielders are almost the same line as advanced or attacking 8s
When creating a structure with two deep midfielders and two advanced midfielders, Chelsea create situations in which they can overload the majority of the midfielders of the opposition.
For the most part, opposition teams will play with two or three players in the central midfield positions.
As such, Chelsea can control the game when they are in possession.
Maintain width in the attack
The width as Chelsea attack at the moment under Maresca is greatly provided by two Wingers that are placed high and wide in the front three.
This means that the roles of the two fullbacks for Chelsea are somewhat different – Caicedo on the right -hand side that enters the midfield while Cucurella is on the left side deep on the same line as the central defenders.
With the movements of these fullbacks, Chelsea can form a solid structure in the middle while they try to control the game and build their attacks.
It is for them that we see the broad attackers stretch the field with their positioning.
They want to stay on the outside of the Chelsea structure, either hard on the line or in the channels, to extend the pitch.
This positioning of the broad attackers makes the movement of Palmer and Fernandez high because they have room to enter as Chelsea attack.
Both Noni Madueke and Pedro Neto can play broadly and to dominate in 1V1 situations against opposition Fullbacks.
This forces the opposition to defend wide with their fullbacks and this in turn enables the attacking midfielders for Chelsea to go to more advanced positions to support the attack.
Maresca needs a better forward option
However, there is still much more than to be tackled.
Firstly, Maresca can improve this current Chelsea team with a better striker.
Although Nicolas Jackson is only 23 and he has suffered injuries this season, we believe that with a stronger profile that plays when the No9 plays, Chelsea could see a much more dominant attacking side.
But at the moment he misses the consistency of the quality of his attacking moments.
And his technical defects means that when Chelsea looks forward to it longer to release his runs, the ball can often bounce from him.
This suggests that Chelsea will be active in the Spitsmarkt with a number of interesting profiles of players who can meet their needs and enable them to be more effective in the attacking phase.
More ball progression of the defense
Also for this new Chelsea system that is most effective, they must ensure that they can quickly move the ball through the thirds of the field.
The issue they have at the moment is that their central defenders and their left back in Cucurella usually have a back of three when they are in possession and their ball progression and progress can be somewhat slow.
One of the biggest problems we see for Chelsea in this respect is that Cucurella is too safe in his possession, because he routinely rejects the option to continue the ball.
Although we believe that Chelsea will look to recruit a new striker, we also expect that they look to recruit a player in the left role who can play as a left -sided central defender and who is more aggressive in bringing the ball forward.
Usually the broad central defenders in a rear three more progressive passers -by will be anyway, but too often we see Marc Cucurella slowing down the attack for Chelsea.
Conclusion
In the past two seasons, the clubs are aimed at recruiting players with the new ownership group that spends more than £ 1 billion to sign an army of young players for long -term contracts.
This season was another roller coaster ride for Chelsea and their fans, but they are positioned, with the season that ends, to be eligible for Champions League.
Maresca has shown enough to suggest that he will still be in charge of Chelsea next season and it will be interesting to see the tactical tweaks he will make to bring this team to a higher level.
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