In the midst of batting away a barrage of questions about ownership turmoil during his press conference ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Bournemouth earlier this month, head coach Enzo Maresca made one interesting disclosure that flew relatively under the radar.
“We used this international break to try something new for the future that we can probably use,” he said. “We also did some defensive work to find the balance.”
The next day at the Vitality Stadium, Maresca unveiled a bold new tactical attempt to balance Chelsea’s attacking aspirations and defensive duties: Marc Cucurella, named in the starting XI at left-back, spent most of the game in an advanced midfield position, operating in the left half-space or “pocket” as the Italian likes to call it.
Maresca’s promotion season at Leicester City made it clear that Chelsea supporters should expect to see their full-backs inverting into the base of midfield, but this was very different. Cucurella was deployed far in advance of Moises Caicedo and Renato Veiga against Bournemouth, often receiving the ball in the kind of area more typically occupied by a left-sided No 8 or even a No 10.
For much of the first half, which was dominated by Bournemouth, it seemed likely to be written off as a misguided tactical gimmick, but Jadon Sancho’s introduction at the interval transformed Cucurella into a legitimate threat.
Within three minutes of the restart, he received a pass from Nicolas Jackson, moved it on to Sancho, made a quick underlapping run into the penalty area and supplied a low cross that should have resulted in a goal for Noni Madueke.
Despite playing only the second half, Sancho had more touches in the attacking third against Bournemouth than any other Chelsea player (25) according to fbref.com. Cucurella was next on that list with 22 touches. Cucurella also received more progressive passes (six) than any visiting player other than Sancho and both men led the visitors in shot-creating actions (three) along with Levi Colwill, again according to fbref.com.
Overall balance eluded Maresca at the Vitality Stadium, where the data suggested Chelsea were highly fortunate to win: they generated just under 0.8 expected goals, their lowest tally of the season to date, while giving up almost 1.8 to Bournemouth (a figure boosted considerably by Evanilson’s first-half penalty, which Robert Sanchez saved).
It was a different story away at West Ham last weekend as Chelsea generated almost 2.2 expected goals while giving up fewer than 0.9 en route to a comprehensive 3-0 victory. Maresca’s use of Cucurella at London Stadium also shifted closer to what would be expected from an inverted full-back, showing for the ball in deeper central areas.
This makes sense when you consider the surrounding personnel. Veiga dropped to the bench against West Ham with Enzo Fernandez, a far more attack-minded midfielder, returning to the team after missing the Bournemouth game with illness. With the Argentine pushing higher up to function as the left-sided No 8, Cucurella was required to stay deeper alongside Caicedo.
Fulfilling a more defensive brief unsurprisingly meant Cucurella was not as involved in Chelsea’s attacking play, but he was reliable in possession, completing 37 of his 39 attempted passes. He also served as an effective decoy in the sequence that led to Jackson’s second goal.
At the precise moment Colwill picked out a forward pass to the feet of Fernandez, Lucas Paqueta was lured into tracking Cucurella’s movement towards the ball, opening space for Caicedo to move into near the halfway line. Fernandez skipped out Cucurella with a sharp pass across to Caicedo, who hit a first-time pass of his own to spring Jackson through to score.
That goal is every much about terrible West Ham defending as it is about brilliant Chelsea attacking, but it clearly illustrates how Maresca wants to use inverted full-backs to help create numerical superiority in the middle of the pitch, giving his team control of the game and putting opponents into difficulty as they attempt to match up.
Maresca rested Cucurella and Fernandez for the visit of League One leaders Barrow to Stamford Bridge in the Carabao Cup third round on Tuesday, but dabbled once again in moving a full-back into attacking midfield, with Malo Gusto pushing up from the right in the first half and Ben Chilwell, making his first appearance of the season, tasked with operating in a similar way from the left in the second.
“Malo and Chilwell were playing like attacking midfielders on the ball to just create an overload in some part of the pitch so the guy with the ball has more options to pass, not just one, then he can decide,” Maresca explained in his press conference after Chelsea’s 5-0 win. “The idea is to give them more solutions and then they decide.”
Chilwell was not among the four players listed by Maresca (Gusto, Reece James, Cucurella and Veiga) during Chelsea’s pre-season as being suitable for an inverted full-back role and will likely need to change the Italian’s thinking in training sessions at Cobham if he is to earn regular game time between now and January, when the transfer market re-opens.
Cucurella faces no such challenge, having successfully inverted into central midfield from left-back during Chelsea’s five consecutive Premier League victories to end the 2023-24 season under Mauricio Pochettino. Maresca’s varied use of the Spaniard across the first five league games of this season to meet the needs of his team and the threats posed by the opponent — illustrated by the graphic showing his touch locations below — reflects a high level of trust.
It is also a continuation of a remarkable career revival for Cucurella, who struggled on and off the pitch in a chaotic first two seasons at Chelsea that began with him being identified by Thomas Tuchel as an ideal candidate to operate on the left of his three-man central defence.
Now he is a positional Swiss army knife who figures prominently in Maresca’s grander tactical vision — and in particular his increasingly varied and fascinating use of Chelsea’s full-backs.
