Before we get into it, I want to be clear that I am willing to set aside what Frank said to Jesse. He probably just assumed, I believe fairly, going by appearance, that Jesse was a tourist who had wandered past security. Frank likely only meant to end the conversation as quickly as possible. It's behind us.
We're not happy about the game against Sevilla
The Americans are not yet completely convinced Frank Lampard knows what he's doing. We are not suggesting there's something within the English character that will prevent him from one day becoming a high-level soccer coach. We only point out that from the outset, Sevilla seemed to have clearer sense of what was going on than Chelsea did.
In the end, it wouldn't translate to better chances for Sevilla, at least not according to one site that posts Expected Goals, a metric invented by non-athletes to destroy the game. Chelsea came out ahead with 0.39 xG to Sevilla's 0.28. There was something in the rhythms of the game, though, that seemed off, damn the numbers.
Arguably the greatest affront in the entire game was that Frank again played Pulisic on the right wing. Pulisic, as has been well documented, and nearly universally agreed upon, is a left winger. His emergence from spring lockdown to ascend to "best attacker in London" status came from the left and cut in. Yes, there was certain degree of fluidity to it all, and Pulisic did, on occasion, arrive in the box with tact and venom from the right, but the man's a left winger. Everyone other than Frank agrees on this.
What we're most anxious about, though, if we're willing to really dig into what it is we're feeling, is that the new signing Kai Havertz is getting this good thing we had going all jammed up.
To be clear. Pulisic can be a lethal right winger, too. But not when Havertz wants to play in EXACTLY THE SAME SPOT where Pulisic does his best work.
— Sus (@_Susaeta) October 20, 2020
This is silliness from Lampard.
My esteemed colleague Sus (@_Susaeta) makes an excellent case that is proven out by these screenshots:
End this silliness.
But credit to Sevilla?
Sevilla has an approach well-formed by the now completely redeemed Julen Lopetegui. They used it to win the Europa League in August. Sevilla were always going to have an organizational upper-hand against a Chelsea side still figuring out how to incorporate nearly $1.5 billion worth of new players.
We could know a lot about Sevilla's tactics by watching their games, but we don't need to do that thanks to an in-depth Sevilla breakdown on the tactics website that a group of Germans earnestly named Spielverlagerung. The article goes on at length in unsettling detail about how the team has functioned on the field under Lopetegui. An excerpt:
The primary defensive unit begin in a deeper start position than a conventional 4-3-3 used by the likes of Manchester City, this allows the opposition’s first pressing line to be drawn out, creating more space for Sevilla’s midfield and wingers to receive beyond the opposition’s midfield line and thus for Sevilla to break the first and even second line of the opposition’s press an increased proportion of the time. In specific focus upon the full-backs... both full-backs ensure that from a technical perspective they are in a position in order to break the opposition press, this is the first option to play out should it be available.
It did not appear that Chelsea were fully prepared for what the Germans made clear would be Sevilla's first option for advancing the ball through their pressure: fullbacks. In the first half, most of Sevilla's successful build-outs went through Marcos Acuña, a fullback, down the Pulisic/Reece James right flank. Often very easily:
I'm willing to allow this may have been partially Pulisic's fault, but only very reluctantly, and I'm adamant about primarily blaming Frank. And since it seems possible to swing it, Jorgihno.
Did matters improve in the second half?
Well, to start with, yes, dramatically. This is because Pulisic was on the left wing, or at least centrally with a leftward tilt, which we're good with given that Kai Havertz wasn't obviously in the way.
Problem is, soon after that Pulisic started popping up on the right. It began to feel that Frank had only started him out on the left to punk us.
That may be harsh. Really it went back and forth fluidly between sides and often the half spaces. Plus, Kai Havertz in general did seem to continue to be somewhat less of a nuisance. Then later Hakim Ziyech came in, and Pulisic was then even more solidly on the left. Does Ziyech being in the game always mean Pulisic will be on the left? If that's the case then we should obviously hope to see as much as possible of Ziyech in the future.
And in terms of defense, was the Chelsea press looking more like a 4-2-2-2 now? Was it working better because Pulisic (now in the second line of two) wasn't getting pinched too far in like in the first half? Because he didn't need to shield as much central space anymore? All of these questions are too difficult to answer, but to whatever extent things did or didn't improve in the second half it ended with Pulisic doing this dramatic spin-pass:
He stayed down, writhing in pain, grabbing his leg, and we were overcome with anger at Frank for keeping him in the game this long. Or we would have been if we hadn't, on good advise, already stopped watching the game more than an hour ago.
word to the wise: Barcelona-Ferencváros is easier on the eyes than this Chelsea-Sevilla nonsense
— scuffed soccer (@scuffedpod) October 20, 2020