5 signs Chelsea’s future is bright after the Under-21s’ Checkatrade Trophy exit

‘Total Football’

Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale used the quote “Total Football” to describe the brand of football played by Chelsea in this match.

Particularly in the second-half, Jacob Maddox and Kyle Scott, who both come on as substitutes, showed some very creative and intricate passing.

Alongside goalscorer Ugbo, the three of them were all involved in both goals and if the three had played together for the whole 90 minutes, the result could have been very different.

Chelsea’s only problem with keeping the ball and playing a quick passing game is that they struggled to deal with pressure when starting as a 4-3-3 against The Grecians. Their Devon-based opposition made themselves a nuisance going forward in the first-half and defensively, Chelsea were not able to play the ball out from the back, subsequently costing them the game.

Chelsea Under-21s manager Adrian Viveash realised their first-half tactics were not working and despite conceding early in the second period, the Blues’ second-half set-up proved to be a much more successful system and could have earned at least a point if they had played in a similar fashion for the whole 90 minutes.