Even though The Charity Shield is only a pre-season friendly before the season starts officially next week, the game between Chelsea and Man Utd suggests anything but friendliness.
Both sides are renowned for their competitiveness and their thirst for silverware, so a Charity Shield still makes a tasty match between two of the closest rivals in English football. In the end, Chelsea won on penalties but the post match analysis will draw more attention than the victory itself.
With the experienced Ancelotti on the side of Chelsea, it was interesting to see the kind of football Chelsea will adopt under the Italian tactician who guided Milan to two Champions League wins. Adopting the "diamond" formation as has been widely reported these days, Chelsea looked tight in the centre of the park but evidently was much weaker on the wings. With no cover on the wings, the Chelsea fullbacks were under immense pressure from a Man Utd side that always had and has more than capable wingers with intelligent offensive play. I seldom see Ashley Cole play a bad game for Chelsea or England, this was one of his worst to date... but to be fair, the diamond formation has inevitably added more defensive pressure on him than when Chelsea played a 4-3-3 formation.
A new formation will take time to settle into and especially at Chelsea where they have played Mourinho's 4-3-3 for so long. The key Chelsea playmaker Frank Lampard looked out of sorts in the first half. He got lucky in the second with a goal that should not have happened in the first place. Referees like Chris Foy spoil an otherwise entertaining game with questionable double standards by failing to stop play when Man Utd left back Evra was clearly in distress (he stopped play earlier with Man Utd in an advantageous position when Chelsea man Ballack was laying injured on the ground) The subsequent counter attack saw Chelsea score a cheap goal in a three to two situation. That sort of redeemed Lampard's non existence in the first half, but he returned to anonymity again... soon after.
Lampard is no Kaka as Ancelotti will love him to be in the diamond formation, and frankly his best position is deeper in midfield, linking play and spreading long passes instead of being just behind the front two of Anelka and Drogba. To play Lampard in such a forward position like Gerrard with Liverpool is clearly making the same mistake when England did the same thing with him before Capello took over. The close scrutiny of the opposing defensive midfielder and the tight spaces in front of the centre backs meant that Lampard has little space to make those late runs into the penalty box where he scores many of his goals. Its fair to say that Lampard's dribbling and running with the ball is inferior to Kaka which made Ancelotti's diamond formation looked class and dangerous. At least from this match alone, I seriously think Lampard will have it hard and Chelsea might suffer some disorientation if he sticks to that position on top of the diamond in midfield.
With Essien and Malouda on the two sides of the diamond, what you have are the roles of Gattusso and Seedorf for Ancelotti's diamond at Milan. Is it smart for Ancelotti to make Chelsea adopt his style of play? Perhaps time will tell. Essien looked less than his usual combatative self except for a header at goal in the first half. Malouda was not all too effective playing deeper in midfield with Anelka also looking overwhelmed with his partner Drogba again hogging most of Chelsea's play when they revert to the direct style that they are always more comfortable with since Mourinho first instilled it. They will always have a part of Mourinho in their play and Ancelotti will have his hands full to get the players' heads around his style of play.
If I am a Premier League manager watching Chelsea, I will think there is a chance to beat Chelsea if I deploy wing play- get in the face of the fullbacks and try to stop them from linking play on the wings, pressure the defence by popping balls in from the wings. By stifling Lampard in the role behind the strikers, you basically kill Chelsea's supply line and goal ratio. Drogba is a menace but he can be dealt with by more experienced centre backs now. Chelsea's main threat will still be their set-pieces with physically gifted players all round the team posing aerial threats but I presume Stoke City can also give them a go at set pieces too. With Chelsea playing a diamond formation, only having one player for defensive cover in midfield can and will catch their own central defence flat footed when being splitted through opposing runs down the middle, Giggs's run and clean through pass for Rooney's late goal in this match proved that the one midfielder covering the defence might work in Serie A but in the BPL, you are courting trouble.
Chelsea might have won the Charity Shield, but I am not sure if they have won pre-season bargaining rights to the English Championship. There is plenty of work to be done and I think Carlo Ancelotti knows that.
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