Was Rafa Benitez right to play 5-4-1 at home? A tactical breakdown of the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea

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Chelsea beat Newcastle 1-2 at St. James’ Park on Sunday, but there was more to discuss than just the result.

Chelsea are a phenomenal passing side, and they were in a sensational rhythm against Newcastle. The Blues attempted 913 passes at St. James’ Park, over 100 more than any other side has attempted in a game so far this season.

They had 1098 touches, again a league-high and again over 100 more than second place. They even had 46 touches in the opponent’s box, the third most of any side in a match this season.

So how is it that they only managed 15 shots at goal? And of those 15 shots only one of them, a penalty, counted as a big chance. That means for all of their possession, Chelsea weren’t able to conjure a single genuinely great chance against Newcastle. What caused this?

Well, whenever smaller sides come up against a great passing team and want to stifle them, the expected thing is that they will line-up in a 4-4-2, forming two compact banks of four and try to deny space between the lines. Of course, because the team is playing so defensively what ends up happening is one or both of the strikers drops and you get a 4-5-1 or a 4-6-0.

That is not an effective way to shut down a great passing team, it usually just delays the inevitable. You can press them high, but that carries with it the enormous risk of being sliced apart of the side manages to beat your press (and the great passing sides usually do). So what do you do? Well, you definitely put bodies back in defence, but you do it with a 5-4-1.

As Newcastle showed today, the 5-4-1 works better than packing numbers in midfield because although great passing sides will look to pass through the centre of the pitch, that kind of approach can be effectively blocked by a four-man midfield working hard defensively. Meanwhile, the smartest passing sides will know that width is their greatest weapon to break down a defence, and so will always be able to destabilise a back four by getting wide, thus pulling a centre-back out to help the full-back and leaving just one defender in the middle.

Newcastle’s 5-4-1 prevents this by having an extra man in the middle because of the back three. What this means is that a full-back can go to close a winger and the gap he leaves in his wake is smaller, and so if the left centre-back wants to move across he can do so without really warping the defensive shape too much because, again, there’s a third central defender in the middle holding the general shape.

For some reason, pundits were enormously critical of Newcastle’s approach to the game because it was deemed “too negative,” but this was by far Benitez’s best chance of actually competing with Chelsea in the match.

Jamie Redknapp described the 81.09% possession in Chelsea’s favour as “embarrassing” for Newcastle and that the players would be left feeling they are much better than the tactics allowed them to be.

In this scenario, however, Newcastle’s players are not better than their opponent’s – especially given the fact that Kenedy, Jamaal Lascelles and Jonjo Shelvey were all missing.

Had Benitez come out and tried to engage the Blues in the open field, his team would have been slaughtered by Chelsea’s slick passing attack. But by playing his game; holding them with a unique and intelligently applied defensive system and then trying to steal a goal on the break, he gave his team a chance.

Benitez’s gameplan was working, too. Chelsea tried repeatedly to break through Newcastle’s defence, but even with the trickery of Eden Hazard they couldn’t do it in open play. The Magpies always had an extra body available to come in and close off space, were never pulled out of their shape, and the game was only broken open by an incredibly soft penalty being awarded to the Blues – after which Benitez abandoned the 5-4-1, taking off a centre-back as he chased an equaliser.

In essence, Chelsea got lucky and Newcastle were unlucky (both in terms of the penalty being awarded against them and the deflection on Chelsea’s own goal game-winner). The result is what it is, but those who are criticising Rafa Benitez for his tactics need to realise he delivered a masterclass in defensive football that even took the experienced Sarri by surprise.

With a bit more practice and a little more luck, Newcastle’s 5-4-1 could make them a nightmare for the top six sides in the Premier League. They face Man City next.

The post Was Rafa Benitez right to play 5-4-1 at home? A tactical breakdown of the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea appeared first on Squawka News.



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