“Interesting” – ESPN journalist notices new formation Rosenior is trying with defender out of position | OneFootball

Chelsea are playing Charlton in an FA Cup tie under the lights at the Valley tonight, which also happens to be Liam Rosenior’s first game in charge.

We were very curious about what team he would pick, and in the end he did surprise us a little by picking a far more rotated side than we would have expected.

But it was actually the formation that surprised us even more. It was a back 3, but not in a wing back setup as we’ve seen in previous years. Out of possession it was more of a flat 4-5-1. But out of possession it was very different.

Josh Acheampong, Benoit Badiashile and Tosin made up the back 3. Ahead of them, Moises Caicedo and Andrey Santos formed a very solid block of two. Ahead of them, it was Facundo Buonanotte and (interestingly) Jorrel Hato making up the two.

Then the front three had Marc Guiu leading the line, flanked by Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho.

Chelsea’s new formation raises eyebrows

Julien Laurens on Chelsea’s formation.

You can see the setup quite nicely in the picture above taken by Julien Laurens of ESPN, who called the setup “interesting”, and described it as a 3-2-2-3 in possession.

It will be interesting to see whether this lineup is just for this team, or whether it’s Rosenior’s plan to use it all the time. We can see how it would work – Sanchez; Fofana, Chalobah James; Caicedo, Santos; Cucurella, Enzo; Palmer, Delap, Neto.

In other news…

One person not in tonight’s squad is Tyrique George, who hasn’t actually been on the bench since October. We’re all expecting a January move – but where is the interest? It’s a little concerning.

Chelsea’s team for this game surprised us in a number of ways, not least how many changes there were. But there’s no Estevao – does this mean he will start against Arsenal?