Formation tweak that would work for Chelsea in the absence of injured wingers

Frank Lampard is building his team around a mainstay formation of 4-3-3 using two ‘number 8s’ ahead of a holding midfielder.

This has been working great so far this season and we have seen an excellent run of form from Chelsea. However, as Lampard has already shown in his time as Chelsea boss so far, the ability to be adaptive and reactive to certain situations and tweak the formation, is something he is not afraid to do.

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I believe it could be wise and beneficial to do this against Wolves on Tuesday evening, if Christian Pulisic is still injured.

Chelsea were without him, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Hakim Ziyech during the defeat at Everton on Saturday, meaning they were left with not one single natural winger in the line up, yet we played with a formation that benefits wingers. This is not the reason we lost though, far from it.

We hit the post twice and had a number of other opportunities, on another day it would have been 3-1 to Chelsea, it was just one of those days.

However, the point stands about playing a formation that suits the players in the starting line up.

If Pulisic is still out, I would like to see a 3-5-2 formation on Tuesday.

I would have Edouard Mendy in goal, with a back three of Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, and Kurt Zouma ahead of him.

Reece James and Ben Chilwell as wing backs, N’Golo Kante holding with Mason Mount and Kai Havertz/Mateo Kovacic ahead of him. Then Olivier Giroud up top with Timo Werner playing off of him.

My preferred line up vs Wolves –

(3-5-2): Mendy, Azpilicueta, Silva, Zouma. James, Havertz/Kovacic, Kante, Mount, Chilwell. Werner, Giroud.