Graham Potter sacked by Chelsea. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
Speaking in the post-match press conference as quoted by Football. London, Graham Potter has revealed the tactic behind switching the position of centre-backs against Manchester City.
Potter played Kalidou Koulibaly on the right side of central defence in the game against Nottingham Forest but he decided to put the Senegalese defender on the left and Thiago Silva on the right against City.
It was a subtle change in tactics that was made keeping the opposition in mind. Potter said that it was a tactic to not expose Thiago Silva against the Manchester City attack.
Potter claimed that the plan was that Marc Cucurella would be pushing forward whilst Cesar Azpilicueta would be playing in a much deeper role and the plan was to help Thiago Silva with some protection on his side.
“We thought Azpi [Cesar Azpilicueta] would play a little bit more deeper than Marc Cucurella, so we didn’t want to expose Thiago [Silva] in terms of down the side. Kouli can play a little bit more on his left side than Thiago, and then we had Denis [Zakaria] in front of Thiago”
It is a switch that makes a lot of sense on paper. As good as the 38-year-old Thiago Silva is, he definitely is not blessed with pace and him going one on one with Joao Cancelo who played on the right side for City would have been disastrous.
Marc Cucurella loves getting forward and it does not make sense to not let him play his natural game to help Silva. Azpilicueta on the other hand is a centre-back who plays as a right-back and could invert into a back three.
Koulibaly has a lot of pace and can cover ground much better than Thiago Silva does. He would be able to handle the left-hand side of defence much better when Cucurella gets forward.
This is also a timely reminder that as good as Thiago Silva is, there could be games where the Brazilian veteran has to sit out. For that, Chelsea need a good replacement in that position.
The Blues do have Wesley Fofana and new signing Benoit Badiashile. Let’s hope some of these players can step up for Chelsea in the second half of the season.
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