PSG's measured and patient approach during deep possession phases against Aston Villa's press has been excellent so far in the first half. The tactical context is as follows: Villa's defensive approach: 1. Against PSG's base 4-3-3 formation during possession phases, Emery has instructed the team to press out of a 4-4-2. This implies that Villa concedes a -1 in the first phase. 2. The logic to cover for this numerical weakness is to force PSG down one side and have the far-side winger (Hemmings, in the example below) tuck inside to mark a PSG midfielder (Zaire-Emery). 3. This provides Villa the benefit of having a +1 in the defensive line, which is important against a fluid PSG front three, who also like dropping centrally to create midfield overloads. Thus, a Villa center-back can follow this movement knowing that his teammate offers coverage. PSG's solution: The answer is pretty simple - find the spare man on the far side (Hakimi). However, the details from PSG to make this happen have been top and much harder to perform well on the field and do so consistently. 1. Composure from the backline to not succumb to trying an early long pass. They are able to retain the ball long enough for the far-side Villa marker to fully commit to tracking the PSG midfielder. Meanwhile, this allows Hakimi to find the right angle and space to receive a potential switch. 2. The PSG right winger pushes up to create even more space for Hakimi to receive. Considering the time it takes for the long pass to travel, this is much needed for Hakimi. 3. The PSG midfielders are doing really well to offer movement through constant below, beside, and beyond runs. This provides more short options for PSG to play through. Meanwhile, again on the far side, Zaire-Emery can drag Hemmings to create more space for Hakimi to receive. Overall, PSG have managed to progress through the thirds as Mendes has especially found these switches to access Hakimi. And as a result, Villa can be gradually pinned back from where PSG can create, as they did for the opening goal. That said, from Villa's perspective, I don't think they can do much better with their high press. I feel like they've got their details spot on as it is crucial with this out-of-possession system to know when to press and when to drop. They've made the correct decisions in this regard. PSG have just had too much quality and executed the solutions to a very high standard.

"The best players in the world can play close together and combine... The closer you are together, the faster the ball moves... It can be really really hard to defend."

Aston Villa 1:4 Chelsea Tactical analysis and match report thread

I'm only just rewatching the Arsenal-Chelsea game since it's been a busy few days. An early spot was Rosenior's on-ball set-up causing some issues while Arsenal, which they partly managed to deal with it. In the middle third, Chelsea in-possession structure is as shown in image 1 against Arsenal's 4-4-2 block. The primary problem that Rosenior wanted to create was a central overload against Arsenal's pivots. Palmer, Fernandez, Santos/Caicedo (they alternated positions on who drops in front or behind the Arsenal first line of pressure), and James would occupy central spaces. Palmer was often the free man (image 2) but it could also be James on the right side when Trossard pushed up. If James held an inverted position, Hincapie couldn't push up to James since Neto was pinning (image 3). Overall, in the first half, Chelsea maintained this central advantage and used it on certain occassions. However, Arsenal managed to cope. Arteta had them transition man-man with one of the two wingers leading the press. This would briefly still leave Chelsea with a central overload. However, as Chelsea were forced back, a center-back, usually Saliba, would push onto Palmer to prevent the central overload. Later in the half, around the half-hour mark, Saliba was more willing to push high in the middle third and press Palmer instead of waiting for Chelsea to be forced back. That wasn't always the case though as Saliba would try to maintain a +1 at the back as long as possible and preferred to hand off the responsibility to the midfielders. Chelsea did not show enough precision in the middle third with their passing to capitalise properly in the early period. Furthermore, when pushed back and forced in their deep build-up phase, Sanchez was too shaky and made Chelsea look vulnerable. Thus, Chelsea were often forced long.

In the spirit of learning more about potentially the next Chelsea manager, I watched an interview of Rosenior, which was quite interesting. Here's a clip from it, which I quite liked, where he briefly speaks about Strasbourg's playing style. xitter.cf/tacticvids4sum1/status…

Tactical Analysis Report: Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea Stalemate at the Vitality as Chelsea 's dull display yields just a point. Thread.