Noni Madueke decision may force Mauricio Pochettino Chelsea tactical reshuffle vs Everton
Mauricio Pochettino will undoubtedly make changes to his Chelsea team for their clash with Everton on Monday.
After a stale performance in South Yorkshire at the weekend, there is plenty of scope for Pochettino to make some alterations to his team for the trip of the Toffees. The setup the Argentine deployed at Sheffield United will have certainly caught some people by surprise.
In possession, Chelsea were using their orthodox 4-2-3-1 formation but without the ball, the Blues would often rotate to a three-at-the-back system. After the game, Pochettino revealed the plan was to try and find a shape where Chelsea would be more solid defensively. Needless to say that did not go to plan.
Axel Disasi started at right-back in place of the rested Malo Gusto, who did not travel with the squad to Sheffield. Conor Gallagher was used essentially as a left winger, although the 24-year-old did drift into central areas throughout the match, while Cole Palmer was the No.10 behind Nicolas Jackson.
Gallagher was much less impactful out on the wing and without the likes of Mykhailo Mudryk and Raheem Sterling in the side, there was nowhere near as much speed for Chelsea to use on the counter-attack. Mudryk did come on – meaning he has now played 456 minutes in his last eight appearances for the Blues in all competitions.
And while that is a drastic improvement on the eight games before that, where he played just 142 minutes, the 23-year-old would still like to be used more. Meanwhile, it has been the opposite for Sterling, who has barely featured since the FA Cup quarter-final victory over Leicester City last month.
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