Conte v Mourinho

Conte vs Mourinho, in footballing tactical terms this match-up was huge in the FA Cup last week. Conte picking up where Mourinho left off and re-shaping the team to be, arguably, the best in the league this season and Mourinho only being a few key signings away from being title contenders again. Ignoring the result, I'm going to analyse both of their tactics and the formations they play.

Tactics - Chelsea

I'll start with Conte. He changed Chelsea's starting formation to a 3-4-2-1 enabling Costa to feed off of the 2 wingers who play, usually Eden Hazard and Pedro. For a striker who gets in such fantastic positions as well as being dangerously ruthless, Conte saw this is as a good opportunity to abuse his strengths. Keeping this in mind and working through the team backwards, he also signed N'golo Kante after his unforgettable season at Leicester City where he made a name for himself. He often partners him with Nemanja Matic in the midfield 2 which is a match made in heaven judging by how defensively good they both are and also how different they are in their size and the way they play. He also has wing backs of Marcos Alonso, another summer signing who has been consistently brilliant and also Victor Moses who seems to have finally found his feet in the Premier League's elite. These 2 work so well as in the attack they offer helpful support as some others can bounce off but also supply the back 3 with clean decisive defensive support that they can use to play the ball well up the field. With regards to the back 3, Conte signed back David Luiz which to many Chelsea fans, seemed to be a bit 50/50 to whether he was needed or not. Turns out, he's done them a lot of favours in solidifying the back 3. joining him are Gary Cahill and Azpilicueta. Azpilicueta being a converted left/right back to centre back and once again it was a controversial one that paid off.

Chelsea play what I call a “helping hand” style of football, anywhere any of their players are they always have a safe/helping hand option they can set back to start the play again. Their play often contains triangles at the back and a fast flood of players running up the field for good counter attacking options. This is vital for a title challenging teams as Leicester proved the season before.

Tactics – Manchester United

Mourinho had one of the hardest jobs of his career going to Manchester United. A team, who since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, have needed serious revival in the sense that they haven't challenged for the title in several years. He started strong signing Zlatan and Pogba. This to many United fans was the belief they needed that they could once again win the Premier League. Just from watching the United games you can tell that they are still learning from Mourinho and that he is just a few players away from having the team he imagined. It doesn't help him that his 90 million pound signing isn't turning up performance wise, however, that is for another day. In all truth Mourinho changed the squad however the formation didn't change a lot. The biggest problem for Manchester United is that they are stale in front of goal. What I’ve seen watching them is that instead of having a forward thought of scoring a goal they have the thought of trying to pass the ball into the net, which may work if they had the quality that Chelsea have, but when you have only a few players performing at their best it is very hard to play that style of football. Despite all of the criticism, they do have a lot of potential to challenge for the title. They just require a few big signings both defensive and attacking to boost their quality and keep up with the big teams.