Chelsea manager Graham Potter suggested that Thiago Silva‘s injury has played a part in his decision to revert to a back-three formation in the last couple of games.
Following three consecutive defeats in February, the Chelsea manager decided to deploy a 3-4-3 formation in the last two games and won both games.
Obviously, many expect Potter to stick with the winning formula for the rest of the season.
The former Brighton boss suggests that it may be the case for a while, but he also admitted that Silva’s absence was a part of the reason he made the decision in the first place.
“Even in the two games, we had different back-threes — Benoit [Badiashile] against Leeds and Marc [Cucurella] against Dortmund,” the Chelsea manager said in Friday’s press conference when asked whether he will continue to play with the 3-4-3 formation.
“We’ve played that [formation] at times this season and the personnel… I mean Thiago’s getting injured against Tottenham meant we had to adjust things.
“At the moment, it suits us quite well and it’s working.”
Potter also pointed out that defensively, Chelsea have not had many problems this season and are, in fact, one of the best teams in the Premier League in terms of conceded goals.
It is at the other end of the pitch where the team’s output has been disappointing.
Understandably, Potter tried to solve this by using a back-four system, which means having an extra attacker on the pitch.
If Chelsea continue to manage to score goals and win with just three forwards, then the idea of using the three-man defence as the main formation will likely be a no-brainer.
However, it is also undeniable that luck played a part in the three goals Chelsea scored in these last two games, and this could prove not maintainable in the long run.
One thing is clear — Chelsea have too many attacking talents at their disposal who are vying for just three same spots in this formation.
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