It’s the Europa Conference League and magical Thursday nights ahead for Blues fans, assuming that is they can get past their Swiss opposition in the qualifier. This is a Chelsea predicted lineup as they look to navigate new waters and ration out minutes to their squad.
Chelsea Predicted Lineup vs Servette in Europa Conference League
How Chelsea Have Lined Up Recently
Enzo Maresca is still clearly adjusting to the best setup for his team but the Premier League opener did shine some light on who the first-choices are. Robert Sanchez was in goal while the back four consisted of Malo Gusto, Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill, and Marc Cucurella.
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In pre-season, there were some slightly interesting combos with Filip Jorgensen, Tosin Adarbioyo, and Benoit Badiashile featuring in occasional back three/back four hybrids.
Romeo Lavia has been the first-choice DM through pre-season and into the Manchester City match with Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Christopher Nkunku, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall getting minutes in the midfield.
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Up front, Marc Guiu started a run of matches due to Nicolas Jacksoon’s injury. The Senegal man is back and supplanted the Spaniard in the league so looks to be the first-choice striker. Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Nkunku, Mykhailo Mudryk, and Tyrique George have had minutes as the wingers.
Chelsea Recent Form and Tactics
Maresca has not been set in his ways formation-wise, he’s tweaked it a lot since first arriving with his 4-3-3 morphing into something like a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-2-2-2 at times. In earlier friendlies, he used an inverted fullback to make a 3-2-4-1 setup that could make its return here against lower-level opposition.
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The flexibility in formations has been paired up with a lack of results on the pitch. The Blues only beat Club America in their pre-season tour and lost to Celtic, City, Real Madrid, and then drew with Inter and Wrexham. The defence has looked leaky and the attack has looked wasteful, two common issues since Clearlake took over.
Chelsea Injuries to Consider
The manager has confirmed two absentees as Reece James is still injured while Fofana is out of the squad to manage his comeback after missing all of last term with injury.
Chelsea Predicted Lineup vs Servette
The traits of players like Palmer and Nkunku has forced a switch in how Maresca plays compared to Leicester. Both players prefer to drift inwards meaning his full-backs have been operating as more traditional wide players to hold width.
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In a fixture like this, Madueke and Neto could start out wide and allow the inverted full-back role to make a return with a back-three/four hybrid used to rest Gusto in the absence of James.
GK – Filip Jorgensen
LB (inverting) – Renato Veiga
CB – Benoit Badiashile
CB – Levi Colwill
RB/CB – Tosin Adarbioyo
DM – Moises Caicedo
CM – Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
CM – Christopher Nkunku
W – Noni Madueke
W – Pedro Neto
ST – Nicolas Jackson
