We try our best to bring you wall-to-wall Chelsea coverage here at We Ain't Got No History, but one area where we've been lacking a bit lately is tactical analysis, especially with regards to individual matches. The contributors who used to enlighten and entertain us in this respect have all become super busy with other things and, so far, no one's stepped up as a potential replacement. There's an opportunity to grab here for any of you, or anyone you may know, by the way.
Until then, we have to make do with others taking a look. One of those others is Chelsea's own Pat Nevin, who may just be the best analyst working in English football media now that Gary Neville has returned to an active career as Valencia manager. Nevin's video, embedded above, concentrates on Diego Costa's improved play and improved movement. We all could appreciate this welcome development during the match as well, but it's still nice to see it emphasized in isolation and without all the other noise.
The other report comes from the venerable Spielverlagerung — Ball... movement (?) — website, who take an overall look at Wednesday's tactical offerings, including Porto's disappointing tactics (lack of wide runners; no presence in the box) and Chelsea's classic brand of defending (conceded possession in non-threatening areas).
NEW ANALYSIS Chelsea 2-0 Porto Analysis of Chelsea's brilliant defence + Porto's awful 3-5-2 https://t.co/onCwlHhfBS pic.twitter.com/pIKOZ5Idde
— TT (@flyingwingback) December 12, 2015
The article puts great emphasis on Chelsea's team defending, which is something that Mourinho touched on as well, plus our effective counter-attacks and pressing from the front, with the aforementioned Diego Costa playing a big role there, too. You should read it.
Of course, now the trick will be to build on this performance, or perhaps replicate it exactly against Leicester City tonight.