At Stamford Bridge this week, Chelsea achieved their biggest-ever win over Barcelona.
That was not the only milestone of a 3-0 UEFA Champions League triumph containing a first Barcelona blank in front of goal for 54 games – a defensive feat by the home side which raises two questions: how did Chelsea do it, and what lessons can their performance offer to coaches developing the next generation of footballers?
Chelsea 3-0 Barcelona: As it happened
In the following article, the UEFA game insights unit will build on Wednesday’s initial post-match analysis and examine Chelsea’s intensity with and without the ball on Tuesday night – and how Marc Cucurella embodied that with his 1v1 defending.
Together with insights from UEFA’s Technical Observers and a leading grassroots coach, we will also explore how Cucurella’s example can be transferred to the training ground.
Collective intensity
The abovementioned intensity is a common theme of the first video below.
The opening clip offers an example of Chelsea’s counterpressing: this was a team who, on losing the ball, worked aggressively to win it back, as seen with Malo Gusto’s challenge to regain the ball. And once they had it back, they were quick and direct in progressing it forward.
Enzo Maresca’s team were particularly focused on getting the ball rapidly behind Barcelona’s high line, as seen in clip two. And their intensity and speed came together for the second goal, featured in clip three: Barcelona could not escape the pressure and Andrey Santos intercepted the ball and – four touches later – Estevão was taking on Pau Cubarsí.
It is not the first time under Maresca that Chelsea’s collective intensity has proved too much for Spanish opposition, as shown in this analysis of last May’s UEFA Conference League final against Real Betis.
Cucurella’s 1v1 excellence
No player better captured Chelsea’s quick tempo, sharpness and aggression than left-back Cucurella, the Player of the Match.
The series of clips in the video below highlight various aspects of his defensive work on a night he performed superbly against Lamine Yamal, his Spain colleague.
Clip one, for example, showcases his low centre of gravity and his patience as he does not commit himself early but waits for the right moment before snapping into the challenge. For UEFA’s technical observers, there was much to admire about Cucurella’s defending in all areas – from a low block, as seen in clip two, to higher up the pitch.
UEFA Technical Observer Rui Faria identified in clip three the Chelsea man’s excellent anticipation which ensured he was able to judge the distance and step out to press Yamal and win a throw-in. “He presses aggressively, not giving him the time and space to receive and turn for a 1v1 situation or even to keep the ball,” said Faria.
Similarly with clip four, Cucurella anticipated the ball out to Yamal by goalkeeper Joan García and so pressed high to thwart a potential counterattack. “The decision to immediately press instead of recovering to a lower position on the pitch reflects Cucurella’s awareness of his side’s collective balance and the position of the team block,” observed Faria.
“Look at the intensity and the low balance and the sharpness of the defensive actions of Cucurella.”
These are all aspects of a defender’s job and Roberto Martínez dwelled on something else that Cucurella did so well in this Matchday 5 fixture – namely positioning himself to show Yamal on his ‘weaker’ right foot.
“He would show him down the line, on his right foot,” explained Martínez, “and from there he was confident in using his pace and his defensive intensity to defend Yamal in a 1v1 situation.”
Clip five provides a case in point with Yamal carrying the ball on his right foot as Cucurella – with Alejandro Garnacho supporting nearby – leads the Barcelona winger on the outside then intercepts as he attempts to turn inside onto his left foot.
“It was very hard for Yamal to go onto his left foot because there’d be another player of Chelsea covering that space and all the open space was down his right – which was the left-hand side of Cucurella, where he had the footwork and the body to react quickly,” said Martínez.
As well as his strong defending, Cucurella played a significant attacking role also – seen with his cross for the opening goal and his involvement in the attacking sequence that led Ronald Araújo to foul him and earn his second yellow card.
“When involved in the team’s offensive build-up, his ability to combine with team-mates, to progress in attack and get into attacking areas makes Cucurella a very dangerous player,” added Faria.
Training the next generation to defend like Cucurella
With the increased importance of 1v1 defending in the Champions League, Gunnar Pettersson, grassroots manager at the Swedish Football Association, reflects here on how to work with young players on developing the skills to deal with this challenge – as well as the requisite intensity.
Pettersson on 1v1 defending
“With the Cucurella clips, you see how well he defends in terms of moving his feet and the positioning of his body. He’s also quite aggressive in his defending. Maybe sometimes at youth level, players are afraid to make a mistake and let a player get past them and so they’ll keep a bit of distance from the attacker, as security. But when coaching at youth level, you need to encourage players to be brave to develop the skills that could be needed at the highest level.
“I think clubs and coaches at all levels can put more emphasis on the defensive side. With one-on-one sessions, from my own experience I would assume 80% of the coaching will be towards the attacker: how to beat your player one on one. But with such exercises, the feedback should probably be split 50-50 – half to the attacker and half to the defender.
“With both the 1v1 defending and the attacking play in these 1v1 situations, most of the feedback needs to be individual, and to be able to give individual feedback, you need coaches. I’d suggest it would help, for example, to have one coach focusing more on the attacking side and another on the defence, though obviously, you’ll need enough coaches for that.
“Also, at youth level you should not be afraid to choose a formation that will expose the players to 1v1 situations. In Sweden we play 9v9 with both 13 and 14-year-olds and we’ve seen games where both teams played 2-4-2. The winger will have a lot of responsibility both in defence and attack, and especially in transition you get a lot of one-on-one situations with two strikers against two defenders.
“Some coaches might be afraid of that because maybe they don’t want to expose defenders to one-on-one situations but it can be good for development to face one-on-one defending in game situations.
“Also, the 9v9 games are excellent for intensity because the players are not fully grown and so when the pitch is smaller, it gets more intense because they’re all the time closer to the situations.”
Pettersson on intensity
“Moving onto the question of intensity, I would suggest we need to train more often at high intensity, both through the coaching but also how you set up the sessions.
“There are a lot of training sessions constantly at 75% rather than going 100% for one minute and then a break for 30 seconds. Even with bigger games you could go really intense for a couple of minutes and then have a break, reset both physically and mentally, and then go again at 100%.
“I think players respond to this, so even if you have a simple warm-up exercise rather than letting it run for ten minutes, when it will be quite slow, you could do it for two minutes and then have a break for 30 seconds, as the intensity will be much higher during those two minutes.
“In my experience, a lot of coaches emphasise how you build play but I think from a really young age, you can encourage the players as soon as they lose the ball to do everything to get it back. I think you can learn the habits of wanting to get the ball back as soon as possible, as soon as you lose it, or at a very young age. And if you get that mentality, that can help you in transitions, which is another important aspect of the game.”
Coaching drill
Here, Technical Observer Rui Faria recommends the following training drill to practise 1v1 defending:
“With this routine on a small-sided pitch, you can create 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 situations. That’s down to the coach to call the number they want each time.
“Having two or three ‘neutral players’ on the side of the pitch gives the option to create a 2v1 or 3v2 or so on. For the team with the numerical advantage, the aim is to finish the attack quickly. For the defending team, it’s about understanding the difference between defending with equal numbers or a player less when closing distances – for example, more patience when defending with a player less, or more pressing when the numbers are even.”
Rui Faria’s 1v1 defending principles
– Body positioning and balance
– Focus on ball and space
– Identify opponent’s ‘weaker’ side
