Why this new look Manchester United could in fact play into Chelsea’s hands
Throughout ‘project restart’ both Chelsea and Manchester United have been predominantly focussing on gaining a top 4 spot, as securing champions league football is crucial for clubs of their stature. With this, the FA cup has somewhat slipped under the radar. A major trophy in the first full seasons for both Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, could alter the course of their managerial tenures at their respective clubs and become a foundation for further success. The two clubs have already met 3 times this season, with Man Utd being triumphant on every occasion, leading to many labelling Man Utd as Chelsea’s ‘bogey team’. But this could all change after 90 minutes of football at Wembley.
United are on an impressive run of form, having gone 19 games unbeaten, which has transformed a season that until this sequence of results had been extremely poor. It is widely considered that one of the major causes for their improvement has been the influence of Bruno Fernandes. Sitting alongside Paul Pogba in the midfield, United are able to dominate games and control the tempo, whereas in previous months they didn’t have this ability and so regularly conceded sloppy goals. However, with the change in United’s style of play there is less room for the counter attacking moves that allowed them to be triumphant against Chelsea in the past. Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial found great success when playing on the shoulder of the Chelsea defence and making runs in behind, however when being more dominant with the ball the Chelsea defence will sit deeper and there will be far less pockets of space for United’s pacey forwards to exploit.
An area in which it is clear that Chelsea are lacking is creativity. Often the blues are in charge of games but struggle to penetrate the oppositions defence as there is an absence of a creative playmaker. This issue usually occurs when facing smaller teams who sit back and ‘park the bus’, but this has also occurred against United this season. In the last fixture between the two sides Chelsea had 60% of the possession, and yet failed to score due to their 1-dimensional play when attempting to break teams down. However, if United take hold of the ball more in the FA cup tie and push further up the pitch this should no longer be an issue. Chelsea will be able to assume the role of the counter attacking side and use their quick wingers in order to stretch the United defence without the need for extreme creativity in their side.
Manchester United will of course be the favourites going into the semi-final tie, as they have 3 wins on the bounce against this Chelsea side. But in this particular fixture the roles of the teams may be reversed, and this could play into Chelsea’s hands. If Man United look to play the same football which has allowed then to go 19 games unbeaten, Chelsea will have an opportunity to stretch the United defence and finally be victorious against their top 4 rivals.