When speaking about defending you often zone in on the defenders and the goalkeeper, naturally.
However, there is so much more to defending than just the individuals playing at the back.
Thomas Tuchel has named PSG centre back Marquinhos as a summer target, read the full story here.
For example, Chelsea’s defending was often woeful under Frank Lampard, and now their defence is talked about as the best asset of the team under Thomas Tuchel.
But the personnel hasn’t changed at the back, it is the same players. The difference is, Tuchel has not directly improved Chelsea’s defence in that sense, he has improved their defending on the whole as a unit, from the way the strikers operate and press, to the way they look to aggressively win the ball back, and most of all, the players positioning across the whole pitch. This is what has improved and in turn, has improved our defending, and not necessarily our defence as a singular.
It was always so easy to pin the blame on individuals at the back, but most of the time if you are set up right and defend from the front, which is what Tuchel has bought in, then only individual errors can be the cause of goals conceded.
The press is more organised and in sync, the players now hunt in packs but at the right time, leaving less gaps to play out of. They are in formation when they press, and more often than not they win it back high up now, a lot more than they did before. This is a major area of improvement.
As is the formation, this allows for more defensive stability, and it can give you numbers for attacking, but at the same time, good numbers for defending, because even the two number 10s drop in to defend when needed and create a solid unit that is very hard to breakdown.
The wide centre backs can press and attack one minute, but then drop in and make it a 5 at the back alongside the wing backs at the next moment, it is all about the transition with and without the ball, and this is what Tuchel has bought in.
Of course the ‘defence’ has improved, but it isn’t a simple case of teaching our defenders to defend better, it is collective mix of all the above to create a stronger unit on the whole.
Chelsea are not a defensive team under Tuchel, they are simply a wise and pragmatic team, and why not? Tuchel is doing the best and making the best of the squad he has got, and he is making them look very very good right now on the whole.
