Cox: Was Tuchel taking Hudson-Odoi off a message to his team? If so, it worked

Cox: Was Tuchel taking Hudson-Odoi off a message to his team? If so, it worked
By Michael Cox
Feb 24, 2021

In Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at Southampton on Saturday, Thomas Tuchel did something managers simply aren’t supposed to do — he substituted a substitute, for purely tactical reasons.

Callum Hudson-Odoi’s early departure, Tuchel explained, was because he “was not happy with his body language and counter-pressing”. It seemed odd reasoning. Analyse the footage — as, for example, Jamie Carragher did on Sky Sport’s Monday Night Football — and Hudson-Odoi’s energy levels seem perfectly fine.

But what if we were focusing on the wrong thing? What if Tuchel wasn’t making a point about an individual, but making a point about a particular concept?

Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid have, over much of the past decade, often been the best side in Europe at attacking transitions. Atletico are happy to sit back and contain the opposition before pouncing suddenly on the break, but they don’t like making clearances. For underdogs who play deep, that is a notable characteristic. Clearances are about hoofing the ball wherever possible, whereas for Simeone’s Atletico, it’s the perfect moment to play an intelligent pass out of defence to launch an attack. That was always likely to be the main part of their approach against Chelsea, playing on the counter.

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So Chelsea had to press the counter — they had to counter-press.

Sure enough, Chelsea’s counter-pressing against Atletico last night was superb. They barely allowed the Spanish league leaders to launch any notable counter-attacks. So here’s an analysis of Chelsea’s counter-pressing — specifically, moments when they lost the ball after a good spell of possession, with multiple players inside the opposition half.

The warning sign came in the first minute. Mateo Kovacic passed infield and Luis Suarez nipped in to intercept…

…before Atletico transferred the ball across to Joao Felix, their main counter-attacking weapon. This was a bad situation for Chelsea to find themselves in so quickly.

The only solution was for Mason Mount to dart back and make a tactical foul, earning him a booking and ruling him out of the return leg.

But that was very much an exception. In general, Chelsea were outstanding at blocking Atletico from playing forward after they won possession. Take this moment, when Marcos Llorente cleared a cross towards Angel Correa…

…both Mount and Marcos Alonso shut down any possible way out, meaning Chelsea faced a defensive throw-in rather than a dangerous counter-attack.

Boxing Atletico in towards the touchlines was a common feature of the counter-press. Here, after Hudson-Odoi lost possession, Olivier Giroud and Mount quickly shuffled over to back him up…

…and, with Hudson-Odoi forcing Thomas Lemar to retreat, both players were congesting that corner of the pitch. Cesar Azpilicueta, meanwhile, nipped in front of Felix to win possession.

Here’s a similar example. Atletico again regain possession in their left-back zone and work a combination out to Lemar…

…but Chelsea’s players are alive to the danger. Timo Werner moves over to block a backwards pass, Mount presses the passing lane towards Felix, and Azpilicueta runs up behind him. Hudson-Odoi, meanwhile, makes the tackle on Lemar and forces the ball out for a throw.

Chelsea also counter-pressed well in central areas. Here, Suarez is on the ball and there’s a danger that Atletico can quickly switch the ball to the near side, towards Llorente. But Alonso rushes in to close down Correa, while Werner tracks backwards quickly to cut out any ball towards Llorente…

…and this is nearly very effective. Alonso holds up Correa, who decides a pass out towards Llorente isn’t actually possible. Werner is trying to cut off that pass…

…and then, when Correa actually goes backwards to Stefan Savic, Werner is caught by surprise and misses this interception, the ball nutmegging him and reaching its intended target. This counter-press nearly resulted in a promising attacking situation.

But the primary aim wasn’t about creating attacking opportunities, it was about avoiding Atletico breaks. Chelsea dealt particularly well with Felix. Here, after Atletico win possession, Saul Niguez finds Felix towards the left…

…but Azpilicueta closes Felix down quickly, Hudson-Odoi and Kovacic crowd the space around him, and Chelsea prevent him from breaking away.

It wasn’t uncommon to see three Chelsea players surrounding the man receiving possession. Here, Suarez gets on the end of a headed clearance, but Andreas Christensen presses from behind, Jorginho does so from the front, and Kovacic moves in to join them…

…and it’s the second man, Jorginho, who wins the ball and knocks it to the third man, Kovacic. Again, a counter-attack is avoided.

This approach can be difficult to sustain into the second half, with tired legs and the game becoming more stretched. At times, it seemed Atletico would find their way through more quickly. When Werner misplaces this pass, for example, it seems simple enough for Atletico to push forward quickly, with men around the ball…

…but look at the situation three seconds later — Chelsea have congested that area again. Once more, it’s Hudson-Odoi who directly stops the break, blocking Lemar’s ball up the line towards Felix.

Here’s a particularly good example, because Mount found himself on the floor after dribbling straight at Mario Hermoso. The ball runs loose to Felix, and again Atletico seem to have space and men in attendance to work the ball out…

…but, five seconds later Mount is up on his feet and marking Koke, Giroud has pressed backwards to pressure Saul on the ball, the midfield is pushing up and Azpilicueta has moved forward to confront Felix. Atletico have to play backwards.

In fact, the only way Atletico had any joy was when playing backwards after winning possession. In the first half, Christensen’s ball towards Giroud is intercepted by Felipe…

…who knocks the ball forward to Saul, who plays it back to Hermoso…

…who then has space to feed the ball into Felix. On this occasion, his touch let him down.

Here’s another example. Jorginho’s ball towards Werner is intercepted by Savic, who finds Felix.

Chelsea quickly press him from both sides, but Felix can go backwards to Hermoso…

…who can then play the ball out to Lemar…

…and Atletico are in a rare promising position on the break.

And here’s a very similar situation in the second half. A Mount pass towards Werner goes astray, Savic again finds Felix, who attacks Azpilicueta…

…and he knocks the ball back for Hermoso, who has Lemar sprinting forward into space…

…but Hermoso’s pass is overhit, and Christensen acts as the sweeper, making an interception.

But that, really, was it — four major incidents where Atletico allowed themselves to break. The opening minute, when Mount was forced to make a foul, and then three times where they were forced to play backwards before going forward.

Notably, these incidents all came at 0-0. After Giroud’s bicycle kick put Chelsea ahead, Tuchel barely risked conceding a counter-attack, sitting deeper and not losing the ball with men in the opposition half. They looked comfortable against an Atletico side who had seemingly planned only to play on the break.

It’s difficult to be certain of Tuchel’s motivations for substituting Hudson-Odoi at the weekend. But it’s perhaps telling that he picked on a player who had actually been a huge “winner” of the German’s appointment, having shown great form as both a wing-back and, in the win over Tottenham, a right-sided forward. It seems highly conceivable that Tuchel wasn’t making a point about a player, he was making a point about counter-pressing, and its importance ahead of this game. If so, he can feel justified in his decision.

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Michael Cox

Michael Cox concentrates on tactical analysis. He is the author of two books - The Mixer, about the tactical evolution of the Premier League, and Zonal Marking, about footballing philosophies across Europe. Follow Michael on Twitter @Zonal_Marking