One of the most interesting developments of the Premier League so far this season has been the strategy of Andre Villas-Boas.

He took over on the back of a highly successful season at Porto where he had a very specific way of playing. He tried to recreate that at Chelsea and did so with some success, though he also encountered problems with his defensive line, particularly in the defeat to Arsenal.

In recent weeks he appears to have adapted his approach to suit the players he currently has at his disposal. The home game against Valencia saw Chelsea sitting much deeper and playing the ‘old-fashioned’ Chelsea way. Villas-Boas admits that he has adapted some aspects of his game, particularly in midfield.

“Our No 6 [at Porto, usually Fernando] sometimes became a more attacking midfielder and we tried to do that here. We decided it doesn’t work here, so that’s one of the things I have adapted. You lose a little bit of balance in the Premier League if you play that way. Transitions here are much more direct, making the importance of the No 6 to stay in position most decisive.”

He’s also adapted the way the defence plays. After the game against Manchester City, Villas Boas said:

“We set out today on a medium block. They were feeling too much attraction to press their short build-up, and in the first ten minutes we suffered a lot. I think we adjusted that, I think the players felt they had to adjust, so they lowered the lines a little bit.”

Another adjustment – or perhaps a result of these two adjustments – is that there hasn’t been such a strong emphasis upon keeping hold of the ball. The below graph shows that Chelsea have been outpassed in five of their last six games – before that period, only twice in Villas-Boas’ 16 games had Chelsea not dominated possession.



We can also show the same data as a net positive or negative compared to the opposition.



Incidentally, Villas Boas doesn’t believe that a side needs to dominate possession to win a match:

“Not necessarily, for a simple reason. In Portugal we have this idea of match control based on ball circulation. That’s what we in Portugal want to achieve in our football – top teams that dominate by ball possession, that push the opponent back to their area. If you go find the top English teams pre-Arsene Wenger, they tell you how to control a match in the opposite way without much ball possession, direct football, searching for the second ball. Maybe now, controlling possession is the reference point for a top team, but that happens because they have much more quality players than the other teams, so it would be wrong not to take advantage of those individual skills.”

Also, it’s important to note that there is no intended implication here that Chelsea should necessarily be seeing more possession, nor is there any clear correlation between Chelsea’s control of possession and their results. But it’s an interesting look at how Chelsea have become a more reactive side than Villas-Boas intended in his opening weeks.

Seems like the graphs arent showing so well, you can take a better look in zonalmarking.net where I got this from.

i can see them fine, however ur avatar is a major distraction ( in a bad way, in a VERY bad way )

Oh, then no matter then lol

Avatar stays for the time being

Temporary measure obviously. With the talent coming in it's all going to be about attacking and passing, we're just waiting until the oldies are replaced.

Okay, how about the shorter term. Just this season.

Will Chelsea continue down this path this entire season because of who he has available?

And, are you comfortable being outpassed this often despite the results?

And how long before he gets new guys in and how drastic will the change back be?

What if you win the league, or just have a successful season generally. Would you like if he risks that good season to change back when he gets new players in?

I think that AVB is definitely starting to come to the realisation that he can't keep on sending out Chelsea teams to attack mindlessly, and expect it to work.

I don't expect him to completely change his style to a defensive one. In my mind, he will stick by his attacking football principles. Despite that, it has to be a more organised form of attack: one which has a lot of emphasis on defending as well.

It'll be interesting to see how Chelsea play throughout the season. AVB has obviouskly identified that changes have to be made, but the major question is, how far will he have to go?

I dont think Chelsea under AVB ever attacked "mindlessly".

I think what was happening was they pressured further up the pitch (which in term leads to a high line) , keep the ball more and was less direct in transitions.

Now, more direct, less possession, medium line and therefore less high pressing.

They have no choice...they can't press (and thus, have to defend deeper) until they get rid of Terry/Alex/Lampard and some others...

Terry will still be around for a good while and Lamps isnt completely finished yet, both guys in theory should/could be at the club the next 3 years or more.

Whats AVB going to do about that?

The Franchise wrote:Okay, how about the shorter term. Just this season.

Will Chelsea continue down this path this entire season because of who he has available?

And, are you comfortable being outpassed this often despite the results?

And how long before he gets new guys in and how drastic will the change back be?

What if you win the league, or just have a successful season generally. Would you like if he risks that good season to change back when he gets new players in?

The Franchise wrote:Terry will still be around for a good while and Lamps isnt completely finished yet, both guys in theory should/could be at the club the next 3 years or more.

Whats AVB going to do about that?

I think being outpassed in games is not a problem to Villas-Boas and certainly not a problem to the players since they are used to counter-attacking football. What Villas-Boas has realized is that results now cannot be ignored and therefore a compromise of a medium high line is necessary to produce good results, which it has.

I do think we will probably continue with this system for the rest of the year unless we face some drastic changes in January, which in my opinion is unlikely. Although it's not even a year yet since we splashed out 50m on Torres, the club has greatly reduced the number of 'expensive' signings and expect the manager to bring up the young players, which brings me to the next point.

The time these changes will take place probably depends on how much the club spends and how quickly we bring the youths up. Right now the major problem of the high line is the defense and we need to freshen up that place for the high line. Luckily we have plenty of young players on loan that have proven that they will be capable of dealing with it, most notably our two ball playing CB's, Bruma and Kalas, who have proven they fit perfectly well in the high line with their current clubs. Aanholt & Bertrand are two LB's, one of which would almost certainly replace Cole, that would probably be used almost immediately next season. Aanholt is basically a young Cole. The time it will take them to come up will probably be two years max, or even one year if we decide to recall Bruma this summer (Kalas isn't ready yet), so I don't think we'll see the high line system fully implemented until they come up. We need to buy a RB however because Ivanovic doesn't suit the high line and we don't have any youngsters for that position, which is why we wanted Montoya. Once we have the defense sorted out I believe we can use the high line effectively because also by that time we would probably buy another midfielder, and with McEachran and Romeu I believe we can kick off the system. Of course this is all a bit premature but I think this is how it will pan out. A lot depends on our transfer activities, of course.

I don't think Lampard and Terry still have three years to give because as the players that I listed above show up these two would be benched since they don't suit the system. The only reason why they are starting is because we don't have anyone to replace them and because they do very well with the medium line system (not to say Lampard was bad with the high line, but just not suited to it). The only thing that could block Terry from being benched in the coming years is his captaincy, but it's kind of premature to say he would be captain then with his racism case coming up.

Even if we have a successful season the counter attack system will not be kept because the whole point of bringing Villas-Boas was to implement the 'attacking' system, which is what Roman himself wants.

The Franchise wrote:Terry will still be around for a good while and Lamps isnt completely finished yet, both guys in theory should/could be at the club the next 3 years or more.

Whats AVB going to do about that?

If theyre both staying at the club for 3 years than any attempt to implement a heavy pressing system is doomed to fail before it begins