When Bruno Saltor announced his first-ever line-up as a manager on Tuesday evening, there was some confusion about what formation his Chelsea side would come out in.
N'Golo Kante was handed his first start in just under eight months against Liverpool with the Frenchman one of three midfielders for the hosts at Stamford Bridge. Mateo Kovacic and Enzo Fernandez, who had played the previous games in a midfield pairing, were starting alongside Kante in the middle of the pitch.
Bruno's thinking was to try and match up against Liverpool's three-man midfield of Fabinho, Curtis Jones and Jordan Henderson and the change in tactics worked. The Reds were unable to get anything from midfield and the visitors struggled to deal with the intelligence and aggression of Chelsea's three at times.
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Despite there being three men in midfield, Chelsea stuck with the three-back formation that had brought them a bit of recent success, despite Graham Potter's sacking at the weekend. It was Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella who made up the back-three at the Bridge and the trio contributed in what was a strong defensive performance to keep a fourth clean sheet in a row against Liverpool.
All three played brilliantly but none more so than the ever impressive Fofana who once again did well in proving the £80 million Chelsea spent for him last summer could actually prove to be a bargain in the future. The 22-year-old made just his tenth Premier League appearance of the season in what has been an injury-riddled first campaign at Stamford Bridge.
Straight from the first whistle, Fofana was up in the Liverpool’s attackers' faces and showed his aggression to set the tone for the rest of the team. The France international won nine ground duels, all eight of the tackles he attempted, made five interceptions, made three clearances and made two blocks – with one of them absolutely crucial when Fabinho nearly opened the scoring for the Reds just before the half-time whistle.
What he did extremely well also was deal with the really dangerous Darwin Nunez. The Uruguayan forward has received plenty of criticism since arriving at Anfield for big money last summer but one thing that has never been doubted is the supreme threat he can cause opposition defenders and Fofana dealt with him very well.
Nunez has enjoyed his best football under Jurgen Klopp on the left-hand side of a front three so it would've come as no surprise to Bruno and Chelsea that the former Benfica attacker was out on the wing. Nowadays, when playing three-at-the-back, it is absolutely imperative that the outside centre-backs have pace and athleticism - two things Fofana has in abundance and that was crucial in dealing with Nunez on Tuesday.
Liverpool's midfield were pretty poor on the night so when the likes of Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate had the ball, they often went more direct to the front three rather than find Henderson, Jones or Fabinho. Klopp definitely spoke to his players at half-time to try and get Nunez more involved and attempt to find him with his blistering speed in behind the Chelsea back-three.
Matip and Konate often tried to lob the ball over Fofana so Nunez could have the run on the Frenchman. There were a couple of times they were successful with this but by the time Nunez had brought the ball down, Fofana was already back in position and making it incredibly difficult for the Liverpool attacker. In one-on-one situations, there aren’t many better defenders in the Premier League than Fofana.
Likewise, on the other side of defence, Cucurella dealt with Diogo Jota really well. It's a different kind of threat to Nunez. Jota likes to come short and collect the ball and dribble, but Cucurella's aggression meant the Portugal international found this really tricky on the night.
As we saw in the recent Champions League second-leg triumph over Borussia Dortmund, Cucurella is at his best when he is super aggressive and pressing the ball almost like a midfielder or attacker at times. He nips at the attackers' feet and becomes a nuisance.
Koulibaly also put in one of his better performances in a Chelsea shirt. It was exactly the sort of display Chelsea supporters would've expected to see on a regular basis after he signed from Napoli last summer with a huge reputation.
In matches like that, where Chelsea are playing a bit more direct to try and beat the press, it suits Koulibaly a bit more. The Senegal international at times this season has been guilty of dwelling on the ball too much and being generally sloppy in possession. Tuesday was perfect, though, for Koulibaly who barely put a foot wrong against Liverpool.
There's loads going to be said about Chelsea's continued attacking woes and rightly so - but their recent defensive troubles were not evident on Tuesday and that's a start. Klopp said after the game that Liverpool took a step in the right direction, as they were "difficult to beat again" on Tuesday and Bruno can share a similar view.
Chelsea were never really in trouble against the Reds. Plenty can be said about just how poor Liverpool were but either way Chelsea made them look worse than they actually were and that is credit to the Blues who have endured a difficult few days off the field.
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