Why Enzo Maresca playing Moises Caicedo at right-back could be the secret to unlocking Cole Palmer for Chelsea

WHEN Chelsea made the decision in the summer to Enzo Maresca as their new head coach there was some unrest amongst fans.

The Italian coach was unpopular amongst Leicester supporters despite leading them to promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt and he was still seen as a coach who lacked the experience required to be successful at the highest level.

This unrest was also due to the fact that the previous Chelsea coach, Mauricio Pochettino, had begun to impress towards the end of last season and many thought that he deserved more time.

It is fair to say, however, that those fans who were unhappy with the appointment with Maresca at Stamford Bridge will be starting to change their minds.

Not only do Chelsea currently sit third in the table, a huge improvement over the last two seasons, they are also playing some very impressive football under Maresca.

The former Sevilla star was thought to be a disciple of the Pep Guardiola school of football and indeed he has spent time coaching in the City Group system.

At Chelsea, however, he has very quickly shown himself to be more tactically flexible than expected and has created different tactical systems that are built to make the most of some of the specific talents that he has in his squad.

This past weekend saw Chelsea overcome Aston Villa 3-0 in a comfortable victory.

One of the most interesting aspects of the game was the fact that Maresca chose to use £115m midfielder Moises Caicedo as a right-back, although one that regularly inverted into the midfield.

This positional change for Caicedo was a masterstroke and saw him run things for Chelsea when he came into the midfield to provide an overload and create space further forward for more attacking teammates.

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It is this space that will be key for Chelsea and Maresca.

This is because this space it can be exploited by Cole Palmer, who has emerged into one of the most dangerous attacking midfielders in the game today.

By getting Palmer on the ball in space in more advanced positions, we are likely to see Chelsea become more dominant against opposition teams both in terms of creating and scoring chances.

Palmer is the key for Chelsea and, as such, creating space for him is incredibly important.

Here’s how Caicedo’s positional change transformed things for the Blues and bamboozled Aston Villa.

CAICEDO CREATED SPACE FOR PALMER

In this match both teams set up with slightly different shapes but three men in the midfield.

Chelsea played in a 4-3-3 and Aston Villa in a 4-2-3-1 and, as such, they were equally matched centrally.

Here, the movement and positioning from Caicedo from right-back into midfield when Chelsea were in possession was key.

This movement created a 4v3 advantage for Chelsea and freed up space that Cole Palmer could move into.

By creating this overload, Caicedo essentially released Palmer, Chelsea’s most dangerous attacking player this season.

The movement and positioning from the England star ended up creating continuous problems for the opposition as the Blues drove forward.

By moving inside into these positions we saw Caicedo taking possession in and around the final third.

The movement to enter into spaces and get on the ball saw him given time on the ball and his ability to pass and break lines released the runs of Palmer into space.

Chelsea were able continuously in this game to overload the central areas of the pitch and to draw the Aston Villa midfielders towards the ball.

This meant that Palmer was free to move into space between the Villa midfield and their defensive line.

In these situations, we saw Chelsea look to play first into the midfield, where Caicedo and Lavia could gain possession, and then quickly force the ball through to Palmer.

Here we see the way that the central areas get congested with a lot of players congregating around the ball.

Caicedo is able to get on the ball and force the ball through to Palmer who can then turn and drive forward in possession.

It is interesting that Maresca was able to create these situations with Caicedo moving inside to make the space that Palmer could exploit.

Indeed, creating tactical solutions that free up your most dangerous attacking players in this way is a sign that Maresca is a very capable tactical coach.

OVERLOADING THE MIDFIELD AND HOW THAT FREES UP PALMER

During the Aston Villa game, Maresca employed a 4-3-3 with Romeo Lavia sitting as the deepest midfielder behind Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer as more advanced midfielders.

Moving Palmer inside from his position on the right-wing would prove to be one of the keys to Chelsea’s victory as the match went on.

With Moises Caicedo, most often used as a deeper central midfielder, playing at right-back we saw Maresca create an opportunity to have the Ecuadorian come inside when Chelsea were in possession to give them an overload in the centre of the pitch.

Throughout this game, we saw Caicedo move inside to form a double pivot with Lavia in central areas and from these positions Chelsea were able to control and dominate the flow of the game.

The timing of Caicedo when coming inside to create passing angles allowed Chelsea to routinely and easily play through the press from Aston Villa.

Here, we see Caicedo coming inside early in the game as Chelsea were building from the back.

His timing to arrive in a pocket of space allows him to receive the ball from the central defender and his ability to open out in possession to drive forwards allows him to move quickly into space.

When Caicedo came inside in possession we did, of course, see him actively allow Chelsea to move the ball into the middle third.

But it was his ability once he received the ball in these situations that really made the difference.

When coming into possession centrally, Caicedo was generally able to lose markers and step forwards to progress the ball or to play more progressive passes that broke the lines and moved Chelsea into the final third.

This movement to receive the ball and ability to take the ball and progress the play himself saw Caicedo act as, essentially, the key in the Chelsea system.

While Fernandez and Palmer were able to push forward, we saw Caicedo and Lavia come together to provide the platform for the Chelsea attack.

Once again here we see the key role that Caicedo played for Chelsea in terms of ball progression.

With Marc Cucurella in possession of the ball at left-back it is Caicedo who crashes towards the ball to receive the pass between lines and allow the press to be broken.

In having Caicedo start from right-back and then time his movements inside to receive passes and play forward we saw Maresca create the structure to really dominate the game.

OUT OF POSSESSION

Despite being more naturally a central midfielder, Caicedo is a player who is very strong from a defensive perspective.

He typically plays as the deeper midfielder in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 and his positioning and movement defensively is effective in terms of breaking up opposition attacks.

Indeed, it was his defensive ability and ability to cover ground and be effective against the ball that really stood out when he was initially coming through in the English game at Brighton and Hove Albion.

This meant that when he moved out to right-back for this game we saw Caicedo play effectively in defensive moments as he covered a great deal of space on the right-side of the defensive unit for Chelsea.

He was aggressive and intelligent with his positioning, although the way that he played defensively was not the same way that we would typically see from a right-back.

He was more narrow typically and willing to be aggressive in stepping out and defending over longer distances than a typical right-back.

In this example we can see that Aston Villa were more narrow in their defensive shape.

This meant that Caicedo was relatively narrow but quick to move out to engage the ball and put pressure on the opposition player that was looking to receive the ball.

It was interesting in this match that for large parts of the game Chelsea were very aggressive against the ball as they looked to press high and stop Aston Villa from being able to play out comfortably from the back.

They were able to be so aggressive defensively because at the base of the midfield Romeo Lavia, and Moises Caicedo from the right-side, were so comfortable in terms of defending in large areas of space.

In this example from the match we see how aggressive Chelsea are in terms of pushing players forward and into advanced areas in order to pin Aston Villa in and prevent them from being able to comfortably play out from the back.

As the goalkeeper for Villa does play longer it is Caicedo who is quick and aggressive in terms of jumping and engaging over a longer distance to regain possession.

The aggression and positional intelligence that Caicedo showed in this game when playing as the right-back was key for Chelsea in terms of how they set up against the ball.

CONCLUSION

It will be interesting to see whether Maresca continues to use Caicedo in this role now that it has proved successful and whether it can continue to work to create space and time for Palmer to thrive.

There is no doubt, however, that from what we have seen so far this season, Maresca belongs at the highest level of coaching.