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Antonio Conte's Chelsea experiment works vs. Hull, but will it work going forward?
Antonio Conte couldn't sleep. So poor were Chelsea, particularly in last week's 3-0 loss to rivals Arsenal, that the manager had more than one sleepless night, reflecting on what went wrong and how to fix it. That period of reflection resulted in wholesale changes to the Blues in Saturday's match against Hull City. It was a gamble -- a gamble that paid off -- but will it be sustainable for Chelsea or was the experiment just a one-off?
Conte scrapped his 4-1-4-1/4-3-3 hybrid formation and instead deployed his preferred lineup with three centerbacks, the defensive formation that saw Conte win three Serie A titles with Juventus and anchor Italy during this past summer's Euro 2016 tournament. Branislav Ivanovic dropped to the bench in place of Marcos Alonso, and Victor Moses came in at the expense of the creative role shared by Oscar and Cesc Fabregas.
Gary Cahill, David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta made up the back three, with Alonso and Moses tracking back as wingbacks to form a five-man defensive front when the Blues weren't in possession. The early results were dicey, as Hull managed to craft chances with just a lone striker running at the defense. For most of the first half, Chelsea were discombobulated and disorganized both in and out of possession. Conte spent a bulk of the match gesticulating from his technical area, screaming at his players to fall in line.
But eventually Chelsea began to settle into the formation, and some hilarious defending from Hull gave the Blues the second-half breakthrough and eventually the win they so desperately needed.
Their first-half woes aside, Chelsea's defense was far more effective than in past matches. Granted, the sample size is small and the result is against Hull, but the confidence boost is there. The growing pains were evident as the Blues adjusted to the formation and role switches, yet they resembled a functional team as the match wore on. The same can't be said of Chelsea in their recent poor results. If the Blues were given just this match to show that they can play in Conte's back-three formation, they've passed.
Alonso and Moses proved that they're capable of handling the end-to-end duties required of wingbacks. In fact, Moses, who was given his first start in a Chelsea shirt in three years, was perhaps the biggest bright spot for Chelsea. He was spritely and direct on the right side, willing to take on multiple opponents on a single dribble and look for an aggressive shot or pass. He was Chelsea's best player in the first half, and arguably the whole match. Assuming Conte sticks with the formation, Moses' admirable shift should see him back in the starting XI when Chelsea return to face Leicester City on Oct. 15 after the international break.
Conte was always going to have his hands full getting Chelsea back on track. There's still a lot left to work on, but he seems to have found a formation that works, at least while he waits on centerback reinforcements to arrive. Conte needed time to find what would work and what wouldn't at Chelsea, just like his players will need time to acclimate themselves to playing in the new system. After the win against Hull, Conte should be able to get some quality shut-eye ... until Chelsea's next match.
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