"Complete performance" from midfielder hailed as "solution" to 2 major Maresca problems

Today at 01:00 PM

The London is Blue podcast do a great Monday roundup after Chelsea games, and this week was no different.

One thing they highlighted in their rundown of our win over Aston Villa was the use of Moises Caicedo as a right back when Chelsea were out of possession.

The team sheets before the games revealed there was no Malo Gusto, no Reece James, no Axel Disasi – leaving a lot of speculation about what the shape would be and what who would be playing where. In the end, Caicedo was the player chosen to trek out to hold down the right when his team lost the ball.

@dandormer & @nickverlaney discuss Maresca's tactical tweak of playing Caicedo at rightback and how it affected the team's dynamics and Caicedo's contributions.

FULL POD https://t.co/t6YNg1MGaWpic.twitter.com/VTKTe9TJFR

— London Is Blue Podcast (@LondonBluePod) December 2, 2024

The strengths and weaknesses of Caicedo's switch up

The London is Blue guys analysed the move, with it's strengths and weaknesses, in particular how it isolated Wesley Fofana as the right centre back with a lot of space outside him:

"This is a really, really interesting tweak. I don't think we executed it flawlessly in defence, just to be clear. But you could see the signs of how that could be very powerful moving forward.

"It did force Wesley Fofana into a few situations of having to be really thoughtful around where Ollie Watkins was and then also where John McGinn was, and one or two times where maybe Caicedo was bypassed."

Ultimately they hailed a "complete performance" from Caicedo "in a role he's not accustomed to."

They also noted, as we have, how this particular move creates a solution to the issue of how to get Enzo Fernandez into the team without dropping Romeo Lavia or Caicedo. It also helps with the issue of Reece James being injured and Malo Gusto struggling for form when asked to play as an interior player all the time.