Manchester Untied vs Chelsea

So, the Anchovy faces rather a conundrum. Anelka and Drogba. The entire team play super well with Anelka up front, and the team play fairly well with Drogba up front. But with Drogba in the center and Anelka on the wing things don't go well. They don't really have anyone to play behind the strikers, and they can't afford to leave Malouda out which means the best bet is to go with the standard 4-3-3, and either Drogba or Anelka in the center, Malouda on the left and Joe Cole on the right.

United like to counter attack, and they seem to prefer playing three in the middle, with an attacking midfielder / trailing striker, which means that Chelsea need to be very disciplined in midfield, and Mikel is going to have to cut out as much of the ball going to the attacking midfielder as possible. Fullbacks are, of course, going to have to stick with the wings tightly, because a lot of play seems to come off them and into the striker, who is likely to be Berbatov.

Now, Berbatov is a fantastic striker but he has the lowest work rate in the world and he doesn't seem to be particularly physical. He also doesn't score many long range driving shots. He does, however, have an amazing first touch and a wonderful pedigree, and with wing players who cross well and an attacking sweatshop named Park behind him to feed him in the box, there's every chance his first touch will make sure his second touch buries the ball.

So, what's the game plan? Well, I have an idea as to what I'd do...

First, to deal with Berbatov I would push my center halves up the pitch. Chelsea like to play with the defenders about 10m further forward than anyone else in Europe, which means that they have a compact team movement, but I would say that they need to do that and possibly a little more to make sure that Berbatov not only has to work much harder off the ball but it will also force him into taking long range shots which are not his forte. Mikel will need to have a game like the one he did against Aston Villa, where he was moving across the pitch a lot to cut out passes, so that he can isolate Park. And he'll have to make sure he keeps an eye on Fletcher too, who likes to get forward when he can.

Chelsea's fullbacks are going to need to be careful. If Zhirkov is caught out of position Valencia will punish him, and we know that Nani likes to cut inside a lot. He can't cross though, and Valencia likes to stay outside for the cross. So, the fullbacks will need to push them up the pitch, and then make sure they keep them on the outside to make sure Nani is forced to cross rather than come inside, and Valencia is forced to cross too late or cut inside on his weaker left foot.

I think if Lampard plays forward, and behind the central striker, he will be able to not only close down on Carrick / Scholes but he will also be able to create for the front three strikers. And Ballack or Deco are going to need to have a rather high work rate, and move the ball quickly.

As for the really difficult part, I have a solution which may not seem obvious and hasn't been tried before, but I think it would work: Malouda - Anelka - Drogba. Malouda is playing so very well this season, he will have lots of space to exploit against Neville down the left wing especially because Neville tends to drift inside towards midfield. I'd put Drogba on the right because he really is a big game player, and his propensity to move centrally will come out irrespective of if he is actually in the center or not. So putting him up against Evra, who attacks too much anyway, means that not only will he have space to move, he'll be able to come inside and lose his marker. It also means that rather than being double marked by the two centre halves, he'll only have a fullback to deal with. And I'd play Anelka up front because his movement is just terrific, he strikes clinically when you lest expect it, and when he moves outside he crosses exceptionally well.

With those three up front, particularly with Anelka bringing Malouda and Drogba inside, and Lampard trailing and pouncing on anything in the box that is lose, I think Chelsea will be able to stretch United thinner than they'd hope.


This is also a forerunner for what I'd like to see Chelsea do next year with an attacking midfielder running the show, and three strikers moving and playing off midfield and each other to demolish defences. And with two second strikers and a target man playing in a second striker role, the line will not be so much led as drawn.