Xabi Alonso was completely outclassed by Michael Carrick for the first forty-five minutes at Stamford Bridge. Expected goals at half-time saw Manchester United 1.01 to 0.28. Yes, United generated about three and a half times as much chance value as we did. We would have been behind at the break if Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo hadn’t blazed their chances over the bar.
We turned it around in the second half to 2.62 to 1.17 and won 2-0. However, it wasn’t a fluke. It also wasn’t a result based purely on Lisandro Martínez getting himself sent off for silly, unnecessary fouls. On the contrary, Alonso completely altered the game in the second half before any substitutions. There was a lot of good coaching and a bit of luck.
But the outcome of this match could have been very different had Amad and Fernandes taken any of their first-half chances. If we tried to deny it, we’d be guilty of selective memory. This was Alonso’s game in the second half, but he nearly lost it in the first due to structural issues, and we need to look at that first.
Alonso’s Defensive Structure
Maxence Lacroix pulled up with a hamstring injury at Anfield three days earlier and is out for the foreseeable future. We had no Reece James, and Jorrel Hato was also unavailable. Alonso put together a back three of Josh Acheampong, Wesley Fofana and Levi Colwill. Marco Palestra was starting for the first time at left wing-back, while Pedro Neto drifted out to the right wing.
Defensively we got the result, but not much more than that. United couldn’t get past us with just 0.30 xGOT from five shots on target. Penders faced twelve shots and had to make three saves, one of them a fingertip stop onto the bar. The issue was that we were leaving space behind our wing-backs in transition. Neto isn’t a defender and Palestra is in a new league. When we lost the ball in the middle, United had acres of space to play in.
United had 71% of possession in the last 15 minutes before half-time. They were dominating possession at Stamford Bridge. We were completely exposed by Amad Diallo, who stole the ball off Fofana twice inside the first half. The defender was slow to make decisions, and United took advantage. It didn’t help that fans around the Matthew Harding Stand were loudly calling for his substitution.
Alonso left him on, and it was a brave decision. Fofana then made a crucial block on Amad and ultimately won the penalty that helped us seal the win. It was brave to play such a shaky defender, but it worked.
The Striker Problem
Danny Welbeck was left on the bench until the 87th minute whilst Rogers and Palmer floated between the lines with no recognised striker in front of them. This has become a trend rather than an experiment, and it gave us 0.28 xG in that first half.
It makes sense: Palmer and Rogers want to play between the lines, and having a traditional number nine in front of them takes away space. However, we had no one to pin the centre-backs, with United dropping into a compact block. This meant Harry Maguire and Martínez could sit and defend comfortably all first half. This is exactly what happened against Tottenham last week when Quenda, Palmer and Rogers were playing up top. We can’t get João Pedro back soon enough, as our system needs a player to play off the defenders.
Why Estêvão Should Have Started Weeks Ago
Alonso spent his Friday press conference defending his decision to leave out a teenager who had played only 47 minutes of league football all season. He then played him, and Estêvão had the most shots, the most touches in the box and the joint-most chances created of anyone on the pitch.
He had two goals disallowed for being offside, both by the finest of margins, so his statistics undersell how good he was for us, and how problematic he was for the Red Devils. Alonso said it “wasn’t about attitude; it’s been about the context of games”, which is a very diplomatic way of saying he didn’t really want to play him until now. We’ve all seen reasons to keep Estevao in the starting lineup, and we hope Alonso sees them too.
The Half-Time Reset
Scoring within five minutes of the restart has become the norm at Chelsea. Alonso made no substitutions, while the team agreed at half-time to keep control by keeping the ball. It worked wonders as we scored almost immediately. This is why we had around 2.34 expected goals in the second half. We ended the game with 59% possession, 540 passes (88% accuracy) compared to United’s 379 (77%). We had eighteen shots compared to their twelve.
The opening goal came from our high press structure. Caicedo muscled Mbeumo, allowing Lavia to win the ball. Rogers broke through before United’s centre-backs knew what was happening. It looked sensational, and it was, but everything about it was due to brilliant coaching and in-game management from Alonso.
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