Cesar Azpilicueta: An Unsung hero in Chelsea’s resurgence

Unique role

Centre-back is an entirely different position to the Spanish International. He isn’t one to complain, but even he admits he doubted his ability in the new role. He said, “At the beginning, it was a bit strange. Most of us needed help playing in that system.”

But if the past has taught us anything, Azpilicueta isn’t a kind of player that recedes from new challenges.

The defender has excelled in his new position, so much so to convince Conte to label the Spaniard as “the best in his position”.

He has unique roles in Conte’s system. The defender has more responsibilities than to just cover his half spaces and defend.

The 27-year-old forms a diamond with other three players in his side – Kante, Pedro and Victor Moses. This dynamic shape offers the holder of the ball several options to pass, from side passing to Azpilicueta, to forward in-line moves.

Meanwhile, in Conte’s 3-4-3 system, it is essential for a centre-back to circulate the ball forward and surge forward with runs with precise timings, along with covering the half spaces left by the wing-backs, who push forward.

The timing of these runs is essential. The versatile defender’s attacking runs, along with Gary Cahill to the left, allows Chelsea to build an encouraging attacking momentum and active circulation.

The defender has two options as he circulates the ball – either provide the ball to the wing-back Moses, or spread it to the attacking three.

This tiny little detail is, however, necessary for Chelsea to avoid any immediate exposure to counter attacks.

Chelsea’s central midfielders, Kante and Nemanja Matic, as robust as they might be, need time to switch back to fill the half spaces left.

As a consequence of this, the support the wing-backs get is sparse. So typically, a side back is reluctant to pass the ball to the wing-back, which only goes on to prove the need for proper awareness from Azpilicueta.

The Spaniard is a testament to this need as he controls the tempo of his forward runs, which allows the midfielders enough time and space to be available for the support.