Mauricio Pochettino's turbulent first season as Chelsea manager has ended. Despite a strong finish to the season that saw The Blues get back into Europe, he has chosen to leave the club by mutual consent.
But rather than the dressing room or a bust-up with the owners, this decision was one that was entirely tactical, and has been visible on the pitch ever since he took charge. FourFourTwo's Adam Clery looks at why the club were on the right track, but it's still a decision that makes sense.
But rather than the dressing room or a bust-up with the owners, this decision was one that was entirely tactical, and has been visible on the pitch ever since he took charge. FourFourTwo's Adam Clery looks at why the club were on the right track, but it's still a decision that makes sense.
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00:00 Ciao, merhaba and good-bye mates, Adam Cleary from 442 here and Chelsea fans, I don't know
00:12 how you do this. No sooner have they gone on a late surge to end the season on a high,
00:17 have they parted company with manager Maurizio Pochettino and the question is now again,
00:22 what happens next? And while I don't have the answer to that one yet, I can tell you
00:27 precisely why he has chosen to go and why the club are happy to let him leave. So let's
00:34 look at that.
00:35 All right, so before we start, I just want to let you know mentally where I am here,
00:42 right? This was me at the start of the season.
00:46 Chelsea are winning the Premier League this season. Yeah, right. I know, I know, I know.
00:50 And this is me now, which is why I said I don't know how Chelsea fans do this because
00:54 I have visibly aged about 10,000 years watching this team this season. And this by and large
01:00 was that Chelsea side. This is the formation you most commonly saw them in and these are
01:04 the players that most commonly filled those positions.
01:07 Now, obviously it wasn't just this lot like Mudrick had a lot of minutes here and Caldwell
01:11 had a lot of minutes between left centre back and left back. Sanchez, we was the first choice
01:15 goalkeeper when he was fit. Badia, Schiele was in and out, but just pretty much this
01:20 was your 11 this season. But a major thing that happened over the last couple of weeks
01:24 was the injury to Enzo Fernandez. So his lack of availability meant that they sort of went
01:30 to this sort of three box three system with Marcucarea playing as an inverted fullback
01:36 alongside Caicedo, Gallagher pushing up from a deeper position. And all of a sudden they
01:41 looked really quite coherent and really quite good, which is, of course, not something that
01:46 is supposed to happen when you lose a £100 million marquee signing of the current administration.
01:53 But that is at the very core of what has been wrong with Chelsea this season and why we
01:58 have just seen Pochettino leave. It is all about who as a football team they are and
02:05 also who they're not. So who are they then? Well, the season is finished and if we look
02:10 at their numbers across the entire course of it, they are incredibly confusing. Now,
02:16 the very short version of this is that they rank really highly for possession football
02:20 because that is the profile of loads of players in their squad. But also at the same time,
02:26 they rank really highly for like direct attacking football because that is the profile of all
02:31 the magic imps and fairies in Mauricio Pochettino's brain. And that, as I've said, is a very confusing
02:37 type of team to be. Now, you're really going to have to pay attention for the next couple
02:41 of minutes because this is incredibly data heavy, but just sort of stick with me. Right.
02:44 So Chelsea rank second in the league for the total number of touches in the defensive penalty
02:50 area and the defensive third. So naturally, you might assume that that means they're really
02:54 good at building out from the back. They have loads of the ball here because that's how
02:58 they like to start attacks, right? No, wrong. In terms of the number of successful build
03:04 up attacks they've had, which is like the measure of how good a team is at working it
03:08 from back to front and making something happen. They drop off all the way down to eight. For
03:14 context here, it's Brighton who rank top for all these touches. They're the only team who
03:17 do more of that than Chelsea, and they only drop off to third behind Man City and Arsenal,
03:22 who are just like top of every stat. And so the reason that number ends up being so high
03:26 is they just knock it around aimlessly at the back. They don't really know what to do
03:31 with it. They're not good enough to be incisive and get through a mid or a low block. So they
03:36 just rack up pass after pass after pass. So they have a lot of the ball, but you would
03:40 not call them an effective possession team, right? But what Pochettino really wants them
03:44 to be is this like aggressive front foot, high pressing team. And they score really
03:49 highly for that as well. Like they're joint fourth in the league for passes per defensive
03:53 action, which is the measure of how sort of like proactive you'll be when the other team
03:58 have got the ball. How much will you let them do before you smash into them with a defensive
04:03 action? They're right between Arsenal and Newcastle for that particular stat. And those
04:07 are two teams who are great at it. So again, naturally, you'd assume they're doing a lot
04:12 of that. They must get a lot of goals that way, right? No, no, also wrong. They get a
04:17 reasonable amount of high turnovers from this aggressive style, but they drop all the way
04:22 to ninth for the number of those they turn into chances and then drop all the way to
04:26 14th for the number of those they turn into goals like one above Sheffield United. And
04:33 what gives you that drop off is situations like this. This is a really good time to press
04:37 the opposition. Conor Gallagher recognises that he charges the opposition, which will
04:41 help keep your passes per defensive action quite low, but nobody does it with him. So
04:46 even if he does win the ball back, they're very unlikely to create a chance and even
04:49 less likely to create a goal. Like ultimately it leaves Chelsea with a compromised brand
04:54 of football. And what does a compromised brand of football win you? The FA Cup. Just in this
05:00 instance, FA stands for f*** all. So again, just to recap loads of the ball at the back,
05:05 but not an effective possession side and really proactive and front foot in the opposition's
05:10 thirds, but not an effective high pressing team. So what does work for them? Well, they
05:16 also score really highly. In fact, they're second in the league for the total number
05:19 of take-ons. So a player gets a ball at his feet, he runs at an opponent and he successfully
05:24 gets past them. And unlike the other two stats, there's no drop off here at all. In fact,
05:29 they are the top team in the Premier League for creating chances as a direct result of
05:34 running at an opponent, which obviously sounds really good, but that is like the complete
05:39 opposite of having a clear and defined system. Like there's a huge drop off for possession.
05:43 There's a huge drop off for high pressing, but they're really good at somebody just getting
05:48 the ball and going, "Do you know what? Nothing's happening here. I'll have to do it myself."
05:52 Like that stat is the most individual way of creating a chance. And the fact they score
05:59 so highly for that should scream at you from the numbers themselves that so often these
06:06 very talented players find that the system is not working. But here is simultaneously
06:12 the other major problem they've got and the thing that should actually encourage them
06:16 the most that they are going in the right direction. They create the most chances as
06:22 a result of these take-ons, but they don't score the most goals. Their conversion rate
06:27 from all the chances they get from these take-ons is only 14%. And the next most prolific team
06:33 in this stat is Newcastle and their conversion rate is over double that. Like it's nearly
06:37 30%. And this is something that I and indeed loads of people have been saying about Chelsea
06:43 this season. For large parts, their performances were way better than their results. They just
06:48 could not finish the chances they were creating. Like these, right, are all of Nicholas Jackson's
06:54 goals this season. And he's got like 17 in all competitions, which is a better first
06:58 season than Didier Drogba had. But these are all the really good chances that came his
07:05 way and he either missed, were saved, or were otherwise blocked, right? There are so many
07:11 other goals that should have happened this season. And this is not me shitting on Nicholas
07:17 Jackson, by the way. I think there is a hell of a player in there somewhere and he's still
07:21 only 22. So he will improve as time goes on. But there were so many times this season where
07:26 a really good chance fell to him and he did not take it. And I know loads of people don't
07:31 care about XG and I only try and mention it in these videos when it obviously passes the
07:35 eye test at the same time. But just this is a measure of the chances he was getting according
07:40 to XG and this is a measure of how effectively he was converting those chances. Like you
07:45 watched Chelsea this season, you saw that, that was real life. And what's just crazy
07:50 about the season Pochettino has had with this team is that there were long periods in it
07:55 where it looked like he was definitely getting the sack and it was all going wrong. And that
07:59 moment against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, you didn't really see how there was
08:03 any way back. But they've only lost one game since that afternoon. Every single start,
08:10 every single metric has been trending upwards since it all bottomed out at Wembley. And
08:14 that just doesn't happen. It would have been so easy for this Chelsea team to go under
08:20 after that match, but they rallied. Pochettino has gotten to buy in to what he's doing and
08:24 it looked like things were going well. And if we can just accept that they should have
08:29 had at least a couple more wins than they got, then look at the league table. If all
08:35 the English sides in Europe hadn't spectacularly messed up that fifth Champions League space,
08:40 Chelsea would have gone into the last game of the season with a really good chance of
08:44 getting into it. And regardless, Aston Villa, who've had a fantastic season, only finished
08:51 five points above where Chelsea did. Like that's a win and two draws away from them
08:56 having the season Villa just had. So yeah, they were actually really close from getting
09:00 their main objective. Jackson's just had a better first season for Chelsea than Drogba
09:04 had technically. Cole Palmer was a great shout for player of the year. Caicedo finally seems
09:09 to be the player that they thought they were buying. Like everything's going in the right
09:13 direction. It's been a pretty good season, all things considered. But the problem and
09:18 the reason Pochettino was left is not the season that's just happened. It's the season
09:24 that was about to come. It's been public knowledge over the last couple of days that Pochettino
09:28 was meeting with Todd Bowley and the rest of the Chelsea owners and management group
09:32 to discuss where they go next. And the fact that he's left immediately after those meetings,
09:38 you can very easily fill in the blanks yourself. He is quite understandably going to want to
09:42 build on the successes they've had this season, build on the momentum they got towards the
09:46 end by selling the players that don't fit his style of play and buying ones who do.
09:52 And that means there probably isn't really a place in this side for players like Enzo
09:56 Fernandez, like Mudrick, like Raheem Sterling, possibly even Desarzee. And the fact that
10:01 Chelsea have gone on their best run when all of them have been marginalised and out of
10:06 the side probably proves his point. But the problem is that he isn't in charge here and
10:11 this is not his decision. Todd Bowley's name obviously gets thrown around a lot, but the
10:16 real decision making tends to come from Berard Egbali, the other co-owner, and the sporting
10:21 directors Paul Wynne-Stanley and Laurence Stewart. They're the people who are in control
10:25 of Chelsea as an organisation and they want to be heavily, heavily involved in the football
10:30 side of the business. And they want Chelsea to be a dominant possession team, not unlike
10:36 a Man City or Real Madrid. And as a result, they see players like Enzo Fernandez, Mudrick
10:41 and Sterling not as bad fits for what the manager wants to do, but as marquee signings
10:46 of this administration that should be getting built around. And crucially, they will see
10:51 a player like Conor Gallagher, who is admittedly a bad fit in a possession side, but the perfect
10:56 player for a Pochettino team as their most sellable asset. In fact, to be totally honest
11:02 with you, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this more or less entirely came down to whether
11:06 Conor Gallagher gets to stay or gets to go. Because if we look at his defensive numbers
11:11 for an attacking number 10, they're off the charts. They're insane. They're incredible.
11:15 He's amazing at doing this. You put him in a team that actually plays this way effectively,
11:20 he'd look like one of the best players in the world. I say that with my entire chest.
11:24 But then you compare his creation numbers, his ability to unpick defences, his output
11:28 from an attacking standpoint, and you simply can't have somebody taking up such a vital
11:33 position in your team if that's your output. So again, say it with me, an awkward fit for
11:38 a possession side, which the Chelsea ownership desperately want to be, but the perfect player
11:43 for a Pochettino team, which Pochettino wants to be. In fact, actually, let me just sum
11:47 this whole thing up for you in footballing terms. This is Enzo Fernandez's pass map in
11:55 the Carabao Cup final, where for large parts, we'll all agree, Chelsea were on top. It is
12:00 side to side, it is retaining possession. It is exactly the kind of team that Chelsea's
12:04 owners wanted them to be. Very rarely does he pass the ball forward. He just keeps possession,
12:10 he dominates the opposition, and they only try and be incisive in the final third. And
12:14 this is Conor Gallagher's pass map from the weekend, where with no Fernandez in the side,
12:19 he plays in that role. You will see there is virtually no side to side passing. There
12:24 is virtually no attempt to retain possession. It is the fundamental difference between horizontal
12:30 football and vertical football. And in an act of pure poetry, the horizontal football
12:35 of Enzo Fernandez and the vertical football of Conor Gallagher has left Chelsea at a crossroads.
12:42 Can you see that there is the metaphor on the nose enough for you? It is a literal,
12:47 literal crossroads. And you can see as a result why it makes perfect sense for them to just
12:52 part ways amicably now before it just gets worse. And as disappointed as I am in the
12:59 whole thing, because if you've watched the channel a lot this season, you'll know I've
13:02 got this weird, inexplicable soft spot for this Chelsea side. It does kind of make sense.
13:09 Like it's either that Pochettino has to go or the ownership has to go. And there's only
13:13 one winner in that scenario. So the ownership might as well go out and get somebody who's
13:17 going to play the brand of football they want, which to be fair, a lot of this side do actually
13:23 suit like not to randomly throw names out there. But if they were to get a Roberto de
13:29 Zerbian par exemplary, things might work out pretty well, in my opinion. But I mean, I'm
13:37 also the guy who said Chelsea were probably going to win the league at the start of the
13:40 season. So I mean, maybe just don't blindly take my word for it. Maybe let's maybe let's
13:44 see what happens. So yes, Chelsea fans, silly season is here and that train is never, ever
13:50 late. Anyway, thank you for watching. If you have enjoyed this video, please do consider
13:54 subscribing to us here on 442. New subs are the best thing in the world to us. They really
13:58 do make a massive difference. If you've not already subscribed, please do consider doing
14:02 so because think how much there's going to be to talk about this summer. You guys will
14:06 get a new manager and there's going to be the Euros and signings and transfers. And
14:10 this is, I promise you, in my opinion, the best place to watch all that stuff. You can,
14:15 of course, also get me across all the social medias there. That is @adamcleary, CLERY,
14:20 the 442 socials are in the corner of the video. The latest issue of the mag, that was a reasonably
14:24 good catch, is the Euros edition and is on sale now at all good retailers and all the
14:29 bad retailers because we do not discriminate. Until next time, though, I've inexplicably
14:34 got to now watch Newcastle United versus Tottenham at 10.30 in the morning because nobody cares
14:40 about anyone's hamstrings anymore. So I'm away to do that. Goodbye. And if you're watching,
14:46 Maurizio, adios, which I'm like 80% confident is how you say it in Argentinian. Bye.