Manchester United left back Patrice Evra is noted as one of the best in the business at left back. Both defending and going forward, but especially going forward. The French international has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the years and is now considered by just about anyone to be world class. Rafael da Silva is likely to start at right back for United, meaning that Chelsea FC have to be seriously concerned with the threat that their opponent's fullbacks pose to them going forward and providing United with width.
Manchester United Fullbacks Need To Be Pinned Back - We Ain’t Got No History
That’s why Graham MacAree at SB Nation’s Chelsea FC blog, We Ain’t Got No History urges that Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t fall into the trap of going back to his narrow 4-4-2 diamond formation. When Chelsea play in their 4-3-3 setup, the wide forwards in that setup force opposing fullbacks to choose their forward runs wisely. In Graham’s opinion, using those wide players to keep Manchester United’s fullbacks at bay is key.
With Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres both available and and their best in the centre, Ancelotti will be tempted to shoehorn them into a two-striker formation. That could be a mistake unless he’s very careful to keep the wide players wide in order to pin back both Patrice Evra and Rafael de Silva - if they’re not contained we’ll get two on one overloads between United’s wingers and Chelsea’s fullbacks, and while Ashley Cole might be able to deal with that Jose Bosingwa almost certainly will not.
It’s debatable that the narrow diamond allows Chelsea to pick their best team (though I would disagree), but it’s certainly not debatable that the narrow diamond setup, unless done in an unorthodox way, could allow United’s fullbacks to have a seriously large influence on the game. For that reason, a 4-3-3 formation with some width - which is what Graham advocates in his piece - is Chelsea’s best bet on Wednesday.
Teams rarely succeed in pinning back Evra and Rafael, but if the wide forwards of Chelsea accomplish this - provided they actually play wide forwards - it would go a very long way towards securing a positive result for the Blues.
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