Enzo Maresca and Chelsea’s 3-2-5 Build Up Shape-A Tactical Analysis
Introduction
Off the back of a disappointing 2023/24 season in which Chelsea finished 6th in the league, falling short of their top four and Champions League aspirations, the club decided to part ways with manager Mauricio Pochettino, signaling a new chapter for the club and its supporters. On June 3, 2024, Chelsea announced Enzo Maresca to be the new manager, having signed a five-year deal with the Blues with an option to extend for one additional year.
Before joining Chelsea the 44-year-old and rather young manager had an abundance of good experience under his belt. In August of 2020, Maresca was appointed by Manchester City as manager of their under-23 squad where he would go on to win the Premier League 2 title — following that he was appointed as the new Parma manager, who at the time played in the Serie B. In June of 2022, Maresca returned to Manchester City as one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants and would remain in that role for the 2022/23 season. Ahead of the 2023/24 season, Maresca was appointed manager of Leicester City following their relegation to the Championship. With the Foxes, Maresca won EFL manager of the month four times and guided the club back to the Premier League after finishing top of the Championship and securing automatic promotion. Following his successful 2022/23 campaign with Leicester, he was eventually appointed as the new Chelsea manager.
Maresca started off his Chelsea campaign with a 2–0 loss to Manchester City and former colleague Pep Guardiola. The week after saw them bounce back with a 6–2 thumping of Wolves in which winger Noni Madueke would take the headlines, scoring a hattrick. Maresca has had a particularly good start with the Blues picking up the Premier League’s Manager of the Month award for September, and successfully implementing his style of play. Something that has caught my eyes most with Chelsea this season is the build-up shape that Maresca opts to go with, that shape being a 3–2–5. This article will explore and analyze Maresca’s build-up shape with Chelsea. By breaking this phase of play down we will better understand the massive impact it has had on transforming Chelsea back into a competitive side. Before we dive into the rest of the article it’s best if we get a more general understanding of what the 3–2–5 build-up shape looks like and how it works.
3–2–5 Build Up Shape: How does it Work?
Throughout the past 20–30 years the game of football has evolved drastically in the tactical sense. 20 or 30 years ago the game looked much differently than it does today. Teams focused much more on direct and long ball-oriented play, looking to get the ball from back to front quickly, often bypassing the midfield in order to create scoring opportunities. As the game has evolved, possession-oriented play has become the primary style of play implemented by teams and managers across the world. Where teams of the past prioritized moving the ball from back to front in a direct fashion, teams of today now prioritize possession and control when progressing the ball, valuing structured build-up play and often displaying patience to break down the opposition.
The 3–2–5 setup plays into this perfectly and simply put is just an extension of this possession-oriented philosophy. 3–2–5 build-up play looks to create overloads in both wide and central areas of the pitch during the build-up phase. With both three players across the backline and two midfielders serving as a double pivot, teams can build out with stability and the ability to prevent transition moments and being left vulnerable on the counter-attack. The shape also positions five attacking players across the front line and across the opposition’s backline, in many situations, this creates an overload across the opposition’s backline and creates issues for them to deal with. On top of this, the shape also creates better passing angles for teams, helps to overload certain areas of the pitch, and progresses the ball with patience to break down the opposition.
How is the Shape Formed?
In many instances teams choose to transition into the 3–2–5 shape once they gain/regain possession of the ball, such is the case with Chelsea. Teams will often choose to transition into the shape from a base formation such as a 4–3–3 or 4–2–3–1. When teams do this they look to adapt the roles of certain individuals and more often than not these individuals are the full-backs and midfielders within the side. Let’s say for example a team that plays a 4–3–3 out of possession with two #10’s and one #6 wants to build in a 3–2–5. How would they do that? The most likely way they would transition into the 3–2–5 would be by having one of the two full-backs invert himself (come into the midfield) and play as a second #6 to create a double pivot. The other of the two full-backs would remain in the backline and the two #10s would advance themselves and play between the two wingers and the center forward and look to occupy the half-space.
Maresca’s Build Up:
Low Build Up
During the first stage of the build-up phase or in other words, the low build-up, Maresca sets his Chelsea side up in a 4–2–2–3 shape. Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez will step up and position himself in the Chelsea back three making it a back four, this helps Chelsea play out of their opponent’s press by essentially giving them an extra outfield player. In front of the back four are two midfield pivots, the back four and the two pivots give the Chelsea shape stability and allow the two wingers to stretch the pitch as well as the opposition giving them more space to build while also not leaving themselves vulnerable in transition after losing the ball.
High Build Up
In the high build-up phase, Maresca sets his Chelsea side up in a 3–2–5 formation. One of the only differences is that Robert Sanchez is no longer in between the center-backs making the shape a back four. In this phase, Maresca’s two central pivots are crucial as Chelsea often looks to build through them to break opposition defensive lines and get the ball into his winger’s feet to create 1v1 and 2v1 opportunities.
Now let’s take a dive into the way Maresca utilized his build-up shape in two key matches against two ‘Big 6’ sides. The first match being Chelsea’s 2–1 defeat at Anfield to Arne Slot’s Liverpool and the second being a 1–1 draw to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea vs Liverpool
Lots of Chelsea’s success came from their play in the high build-up. In the high build-up, Chelsea played in their 3–2–5 shape. With Gusto and Palmer now occupying the half-spaces in the front five it caused Liverpool all sorts of issues. The first issue was that there were now 5 Chelsea attackers to 4 Liverpool defenders, the second issue being the overloads they created in wide areas against the Liverpool full-backs. With Palmer and Madueke as well as Gusto and Sancho being able to play off each other it created 2v1 situations for both Alexander-Arnold and Robertson to deal with. Another issue caused for Liverpool during their out-of-possession play was Malo Gusto dragging Ryan Gravenberch into the Liverpool back four, thus giving Chelsea overloads in the central areas of the pitch. Throughout the first half, a majority of the Chelsea attacks came from the left-hand side and involved Jadon Sancho going 1v1 against Alexander-Arnold due to the space they were allotted in the central areas with Gravenberch being dragged out.
Although the Blues found themselves 1–0 down at the break, one of their best moments of quality came when striker Nicolas Jackson netted home a goal to level the score three minutes into the second half. This moment also highlighted the success of Maresca and Chelsea’s build-up. In the lead-up to the goal we see Malo Gusto occupying the half-space and coming down to receive the ball off the feet of Tosin Adrabiyo before laying the ball off to one of the two pivots, Moises Caicedo, who then slipped Nicolas Jackon in who went on tuck the ball in the back of the net. Almost a perfect example of the way Maresca wants to get the ball from back to front in the build-up.
Chelsea vs Arsenal
Another excellent spotlight of the Chelsea build-up shape came from their match against Arsenal on the 10th of November which saw them draw Mikel Arteta’s side 1–1. Similar to the match against Liverpool, Chelsea once again built in their 4–2–2–3 shape during the low build-up. There were several personnel changes to the Chelsea starting XI compared to how the team sheet looked against Liverpool, with the majority of the changes coming to the back line. One of the changes was full-back Malo Gusto playing as the right-sided full-back instead of on the left as he did against Liverpool. Gusto would not play on the right-hand side and occupy the half-space between Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke. Just like against Liverpool, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez stepped into the back three and made it a back four by playing between Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana. Chelsea again wanted to invite pressure from Arsenal and build through the two pivots, Lavia and Caicedo.
Just like their match against Liverpool, Chelsea once again built in the 3–2–5 shape during the high build-up. One of the only differences was that Gusto and Palmer occupied the opposite half-space as the one they played in during the Liverpool game. Chelsea primarily looked to progress the ball by breaking Arsenal’s defensive lines by playing into the feet of the half-space players and then bouncing the ball off one of the two pivots before the ball was played wide into one of the wingers. In this match, Chelsea chose to concentrate the majority of their build-up down the right-hand side of the pitch.
Characteristics and Principles in Maresca’s Build Up
Manipulation of the Half-Space
Something that we see very often with Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea, is their manipulation of the half-space and the want to attack through this area of the pitch. A common build-up pattern that we see with Maresca’s side is a ball being played into one of the half-space players, which in many cases is Gusto or Palmer and then them looking to lay the ball off to one of the wingers. When the ball is played into the wingers the opposition’s full-back is often sucked over to them creating a 1v1 situation, this is when the half-space player will attack through the half-space by making an underlapping run in behind hoping for a return ball from the winger. This exact situation described is something that was seen very often with Malo Gusto and Jadon Sancho against Chelsea.
Creating 1v1 and 2v1’s Against Opposition Full-Back’s
This next principle goes hand and hand with the previous one, as mentioned just above the wingers and the half-space players look to work off one another. Naturally, this creates 1v1 and 2v1 situations in wide areas against the opposition’s full-backs. When the ball is played into the half-space and he lays it off to the winger, more often than not the winger is left 1v1 with the full-back and this is exactly what Maresca wants from his side, to exploit these 1v1 situations and give his wingers freedom to take on full-backs. Noni Madueke is a player, who in my opinion, has thrived with the arrival of Maresca.
Use of the Third-Man
Chelsea and Maresca’s usage of the third-man principle is so important in the way they look to play in the build-up, not just in the low build-up but the high build-up as well. What is the third man principle? Simply put, the third-man principle is a tactical concept in which three players work with each other and connect passes in order to keep possession of the ball and get the ball into the feet of a teammate who may have a defender in the passing lane. Let’s go through an example, say player 1 wants to play a straight pass into player 2 but is unable to because there is an opposition player in the passing lane. Player 1 may play a sideways pass into Player 3, the opposition player closes Player 3 down, and now Player 3 is able to get the ball into Player 2.
How do Chelsea and Maresca use the third-man principle? Well as I mentioned earlier they use it in two different ways depending on what stage of the build-up phase they are in. How they look to use it during the low build-up differs from the way it is made use of during the high build-up. Chelsea primarily uses this principle in the low build-up but it is used at times during the high build-up, albeit not as often. When goalkeeper Robert Sanchez is pressed by the opposition he will look to play the ball into one of the two pivots before they find a free center-back.
Creating Overloads and Palmer’s Freedom
A massive part of Maresca’s 3–2–5 is to create overloads in certain areas of the pitch that are difficult to deal with and a big part of this is the freedom that Cole Palmer is given by his manager. For example, the most common overload that we see is across the opposition’s backline. Whether the opposition are playing in a back three or a back four, Chelsea will always have the overload in that area of the pitch as they position five attacking players across the opposition’s back line. Let’s talk about Palmer, how does Palmer’s freedom create overloads? Palmer is given the freedom to float around the pitch by his manager. Most commonly we see Palmer dropping into the midfield. When this happens it naturally gives Chelsea an overload in that area of the pitch and helps them play out of a press and progress the ball forward.
Back Three Coming Deep into Oppositions Half
As Chelsea works the ball into the opposition’s half and sustains and establishes possession there a common trend we see is the back coming very deep into the opposition’s half. Maresca does this for several reasons. The first reason is that it naturally backs the opposition closer to their own goal and pins them into their defensive third. The second reason is that it helps to prevent the opposition from transitioning quickly and hitting them on the counter, if Chelsea lose the ball they are much better positioned to counter-press and if they were to win the ball back they win it in a much better and more advanced position.
Pivots not Occupying the Same Horizontal and Vertical Lines
Another distinct trait of Maresca’s build-up play is that he does not like his two pivots to occupy the same horizontal or vertical lines, he likes them staggered with one playing slightly ahead of the other one. The reason for this is simple, it is much harder for the opposition to defend. Now the opposition must make a decision, they now have to choose which one to get tight to and block off and this creates space behind them for them to play into. It also allows the two pivots to play off of each other and link up with each other and provides the center-back with the option to use the third-man principle by breaking a defensive line by playing the ball into the feet of the more advanced pivot who can then lay the ball off to the deeper one.
Written by Owen Merda, Opposition Analyst for Bavarian United’s USL League 2 squad + Opposition and Video Analyst for Concordia University Wisconsin’s Men’s Soccer Program. Feel free to drop me a follow on the below listed social media platforms or email me for any inquires.
Email: owen.merda@gmail.com
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