Man United held Chelsea to a 0-0 draw in the Premier League on Sunday and this draw means that Thomas Tuchel has now picked up just two points from the previous two league matches.
Chelsea had a really underwhelming first-half on Sunday – something we had not seen under the new manager so far and according to former United player Luke Chadwick, Thomas Tuchel might have failed to deploy the perfect tactics at the Bridge.
“I’m not sure if Tuchel was looking for what he got at the start of the game,” Chadwick told CaughtOffside. “Playing Giroud made Maguire and Lindelof feel that they were quite comfortable – they were happy to push up with Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw.
“At times United were caught down the sides with good movement from Mason Mount in particular getting into that inside left position. Maguire and Lindelof then pulled the full-backs inside a bit, which gave the Chelsea wing-backs and wide centre-backs more time on the ball. Then Chelsea were quite comfortable on the ball without ever really hurting United.
“I think it’s always going to be an issue with Maguire and Lindelof – fantastic central defenders though they both are – they have the same weakness in terms of that ball down the channel, where it can be a struggle against top, top quality players.
“Giroud’s a brilliant Premier League striker but it’s probably not his strength running away from people. It probably worked in United’s favour in the end that Giroud played there but maybe Tuchel did that to encourage United to get their full-backs further forward. It was an interesting tactical battle if not a particularly easy game on the eye.”
Olivier Giroud has been in fine form under Thomas Tuchel which is the biggest reason why the manager handed him a start against United on Sunday. The Frenchman scored against Atletico Madrid last week and he is the in-form striker right now for Chelsea. But clearly Lindelof and Maguire had very little trouble dealing with the centre-forward.
Hakim Ziyech and Mason Mount played just behind Giroud on Sunday and both of them were superb. The same cannot be said about the forward though as he could not manage even a single shot on target during his 65 minutes on the pitch.
Next up, Chelsea face Liverpool in midweek and some pundits think Thomas Tuchel should bring in Tammy Abraham for this match. But we feel the Chelsea manager will stick with Giroud once again since Liverpool will be using some relatively inexperienced centre-backs.
