Analyzing Norwich's defensive system and Chelsea's winning goals

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Since I missed the first 40 minutes of this match, the analysis will only cover the second half.

Chelsea grabbed 3 vital points at Carrow Road with spectacular goals from Oscar, Hazard and Willian while Norwich's only goal came from Anthony Pilkington.

Here we see Norwich’s defensive block ahead of the 4 defenders. The striker joins in, creating an effective defensive formation of 4-5-1. This enables them to move along the pitch laterally as a unit, thus reducing the amount of holes that can be exploited. Norwich were reluctant to press when organized. As can be seen from the screen grab, the yellow area is the zone of pressure, which no Norwich player is ready to jump into. Their first priority is blocking of passing lanes to the players encircled in white, who can attack areas encircled in red . The Norwich players, who have pressing movement (blue dotted arrows), are the one’s assigned to cut off direct passing lanes.

We further explore Norwich’s second defensive line. Well structured, but gives false hope of an exploitable hole. They can easily be pressed when they try to directly penetrate it. The player encircled in white is isolated. If a ball is played to him, Norwich will pounce. Pilkington’s pressing in this phase of play had been fantastic.

Here we notice Norwich’s reluctance to press until a player enters a zone (for instance the red circle). Hazard has the ball and evaluates his option. No doubt that he has the ability to burst right at them, and he tried to do so.

The moment he enters, a red exclamation mark lights up on top of his head. The midfielder’s press and reduce his passing options. We can also note that by doing this, Norwich exposed themselves on the sides due to pressing too narrow. Hazard could lob the ball in Ivanovic’s direction, and we could have the ball in.

Here is a note on Norwich’s defensive transition. The players retreat and form a defensive block before the attackers are able to organize themselves. This gives the defenders a numerical advantage if the ball is played narrow, and also help them cover each other by covering up holes with 80% zonal and 20% man marking.

Moving on to Hazard's Goal. A poor, poor corner by Pilkington leads to Luiz clearing the ball away. Hazard had quite a jump as he head’s the ball towards Willian. Oscar begins initiating a counter-attack by making the first run.

Willian's first header is too weak to pass it on. He then heads it again, but more powerfully and into the path of Oscar. Hazard has now realized that the ball will come to him at the end of the day and is beginning to make a run. Norwich meanwhile are retreating back as fast as possible.

Oscar gets ready to curl the ball in. Tettey will try to reach it before Hazard, which he does. But could he have prevented the goal, or was it the fault of the two defender’s retreating with him?

Tettey is a right footed player, but still opts to clear the ball with his left. -1 to him. The defender encircled in white makes a mistake of stopping his run. He should actually have continued and come alongside Tettey, Hazard would have had no chance of scoring then. Instead he slows down. -1 to him again. However it seems that it wasn’t too hard for Tettey to clear with his right, but that’s an opinion in hindsight. To sum it up, Hazard made a terrific run, and deserved a goal for the effort he put in. Tettey on the other hand could have made a better clearance, while the Norwich player could have kept retreating. A collective mistake.

Everyone seems to have made up their mind that Willian’s goal was in fact the result of a counter-attack. For me though, a cloud of mystery still looms around it. Willian received the ball after Norwich were dispossessed. The best indicator of a counter-attack is that the common eye can spot is an exploitable hole, which in this case; is the area encircled in red that can be penetrated directly by Chelsea. However WIllian moves along with the ball.

Willian passes to Eto’o and now we see another area encircled in red that can be directly exploited. The fact is that, over the two screen grabs, Norwich are retreating faster than Chelsea are pushing up players, which makes this either a lazy counter-attack, or just another medium to waste time. 7 Norwich yellow players directly against 4 in Chelsea white.

Here we see Eto’o cutting in, losing the ball only to be picked up by Willian who curves it into the back of the net. A peach of a goal . However if you notice, the entire Norwich structure has been organized, removing the theoretical effect of a counter-attack.

By definition - The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy during attack, whilst the specific objectives typically seek to regain lost ground or destroy the attacking enemy.

The fact that whether Chelsea were trying to destroy the enemy is debatable. If they were indeed trying to, they could have been faster, considering Hazard and Willian were just brought into the game. Regain lost ground refers to pushing your players ahead and giving you a numerical advantage, which Chelsea fail to do so by the time the shot is unleashed. If I were to write this goal down in a file and put in a briefcase, I would print out a huge question mark and stick it on one of it’s sides. Let the debate begin.

The end score:

Norwich 1

Chelsea 3

Tettey -2

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[hjperdeath 2,226]

Just got up, school now. So bump.

[wj818 25]

Imo the third goal came from a counterattack that was stopped because when we watch the play, Willian chooses not to pass to Oscar who was unmarked and instead retreats to the flanks and then passes to eto. Tht is a clear indication of choosing possession over counter. it might've initially been a counter but that momentum was lost long before the William strike.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Imo the third goal came from a counterattack that was stopped because when we watch the play, Willian chooses not to pass to Oscar who was unmarked and instead retreats to the flanks and then passes to eto. Tht is a clear indication of choosing possession over counter. it might've initially been a counter but that momentum was lost long before the William strike.

That was my view, he could have laid it to Oscar but instead drifted wide instead of going straight at them. Agree completely !

[NishC300 1,865]

@hjperdeath, Brilliant as usual! What do you think about the goal we conceded and why do u think we struggled in the 2nd half at the back?

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I think Tetteyw was trying to control the ball instead of clearing it. Hazard deserves a lot of credit, imo, not only for running the length of the field, but also for out smarting Tettey. Because he started the run on Tetteys' left then as Oscar played the ball he slowed down just a little and anticipated that Tettey would control it to his right.

The finish was bad, but over all it was brilliant by Eden.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

@hjperdeath, Brilliant as usual! What do you think about the goal we conceded and why do u think we struggled in the 2nd half at the back?

We mostly struggled due to their organized pressing. In most phases when Chelsea were knocking the ball around, Ramires and Lampard had problems. Usually when chasing a winner, Chelsea have no problem keeping the ball moving in the middle due to a simple reason that the opposition won't press as they want to take at-least a point back home. A hungry Norwich came out in the second half. Their pressing involved the striker as well, so the ball had to be moved swiftly at the back. When the ball entered the middle of the pitch, the wingers came in narrow and pressed. Pilkington was immense as I've mentioned in the article and worked his ass off. Fully deserved the goal. The problem is Chelsea don't have the type of midfielder that can calm things down at a faster rate and move it to people to initiate attacks that have a higher chance of ending up at the back of the net. Gundogan as we've talked about on his thread is the perfect kind of player. At the back they have Luiz, whose technical ability easily lets him initiate attacks and play that incisive pass.

I wish I could have analyzed the Norwich goal, but I would have blasted away my word limit. Anyway I can brief it here.

A long ball from Cech and Norwich were able to get the ball back. But if you look at Pilkington, he sticks close to Ivanovic and drifts in as fast as possible. This means the entire right zone of the defensive third is wide open. Oscar comes back but fails to do so in time as Olsson gets the ball. Pilkington on the other hand then sticks to Luiz. Ivanovic here has problems now as he literally is in no mans land. He decides to press at Olsson. But too late, as he whips in a beautiful cross which meets a terrific header. A well well deserved goal if you pay attention to the tiniest of details. Literally tore apart our defense with that move.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

I think Tetteyw was trying to control the ball instead of clearing it. Hazard deserves a lot of credit, imo, not only for running the length of the field, but also for out smarting Tettey. Because he started the run on Tetteys' left then as Oscar played the ball he slowed down just a little and anticipated that Tettey would control it to his right.

The finish was bad, but over all it was brilliant by Eden.

hmm interesting way to look at it. Yeah Eden's movement was noticeable and exceptional. Debatable about what Tettey tried to do though..

[CHOULO19 24,332]

hmm interesting way to look at it. Yeah Eden's movement was noticeable and exceptional. Debatable about what Tettey tried to do though..

I think he had enough time and space to properly clear it if he wanted to, even with his left foot. I think he was either trying to control it or pass it, or he was unsure which to do and ended up doing none.

Anyway, we got incredibly lucky in that instance and got the VITAL 3 points.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

I think he had enough time and space to properly clear it if he wanted to, even with his left foot. I think he was either trying to control it or pass it, or he was unsure which to do and ended up doing none.

Anyway, we got incredibly lucky in that instance and got the VITAL 3 points.

Things just get worse for Chris Hughton though..

[Rmpr 8,977]

Great article, but I dont think Norwich's defensive system had that many flaws as the images sugests...

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Great article, but I dont think Norwich's defensive system had that many flaws as the images sugests...

I didn't note them down as flaws really, it was more like deceptive holes that on first sight look exploitable. Norwich had a very good defensive structure, and were unlucky to concede the two goals !

[Rmpr 8,977]

I didn't note them down as flaws really, it was more like deceptive holes that on first sight look exploitable. Norwich had a very good defensive structure, and were unlucky to concede the two goals !

I know, but that is the problem of using images, they can be very deceiving...

For instance, the second and third images clearly show holes, but if you actually rewind the match and watch it (believe me, I did that) you will see that it was merely momentarily and the defenders (aka. the entire team) came quickly back to their lines of 4 and 5. So they really didnt allow that much of a space as the images suggest.

And that is one of the reasons most managers use video to give instructions to their players. Because sometimes you cant really show what you want with static pictures, you need movement. Movement is exactly what set football apart from turn-by-turn sports!

Not that I disagree with you nor I think using the pictures wasnt clever. Much of the contrary, I honestly liked it. But I only made an observation...

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Things just get worse for Chris Hughton though..

Don't think he was counting on getting anything from the game against us, but he is under presure. Norwich have too much quality to be sitting in 17th.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

I know, but that is the problems of using images, they can be very deceiving...

For instance, the second and third images clearly show holes, but if you actually rewind the match and watch it (believe me, I did that) you will see that it was merely momentarily and the defenders (aka. the entire team) came quickly back to their lines of 4 and 5.

And that is one of the reasons most managers use video to give instructions to their players. Because sometimes you cant really show what you want with static pictures, you need movement. Movement is exactly waht set football apart from turn-by-turn sports!

Not that I disagree with you nor I dont think using the pictures wasnt clever, I honestly liked it. I only made an observation...

ah, I didn't note them down as exploitable zones though. For the second and third I talked mostly about their organization , didn't want myself to sound like I was saying that they could be easily exploited or anything.

And agree. I've used them before at clubs, but that was via USB's and a projector. For Chelsea, I need to get them up on youtube. Copyright always takes me down, so I don't find it worth the hassle. :/

Don't think he was counting on getting anything from the game against us, but he is under presure. Norwich have too much quality to be sitting in 17th.

For a second I actually thought Nathan Redmond would score against us. Thank god that didn't happen.

[communicate 2,703]

We mostly struggled due to their organized pressing. In most phases when Chelsea were knocking the ball around, Ramires and Lampard had problems. Usually when chasing a winner, Chelsea have no problem keeping the ball moving in the middle due to a simple reason that the opposition won't press as they want to take at-least a point back home. A hungry Norwich came out in the second half. Their pressing involved the striker as well, so the ball had to be moved swiftly at the back. When the ball entered the middle of the pitch, the wingers came in narrow and pressed. Pilkington was immense as I've mentioned in the article and worked his ass off. Fully deserved the goal. The problem is Chelsea don't have the type of midfielder that can calm things down at a faster rate and move it to people to initiate attacks that have a higher chance of ending up at the back of the net. Gundogan as we've talked about on his thread is the perfect kind of player. At the back they have Luiz, whose technical ability easily lets him initiate attacks and play that incisive pass.

It has been our problem for quite some time now, I always think mikel has potential to be our tempo setter but it looks like it is not going to happen

[hjperdeath 2,226]

It has been our problem for quite some time now, I always think mikel has potential to be our tempo setter but it looks like it is not going to happen

True. Maybe we'll go through with what we have this season, and get another central midfielder by summer.