{"id":666809,"date":"2026-03-17T09:07:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=666809"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:07:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:07:48","slug":"french-media-leaks-chelsea-tactical-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/17\/french-media-leaks-chelsea-tactical-change\/","title":{"rendered":"French Media Reportedly Leaks Chelsea Tactical Tweak for PSG Second Leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the first leg between Chelsea and Paris-Saint Germain last week the Blues had their lineup leak early through French media. Ahead of their rematch on March 17, there has been a new leak from France suggesting two big changes, one regarding the makeup of the back four and the other looking at a tactical shift we could see.<\/p>\n

French Media Leaks Hint Wes Fofana Could be Dropped<\/h2>\n

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Expectation<\/h3>\n

According to Marc Mechenoua<\/a>, a reporter dedicated to PSG coverage, Wes Fofana is expected to be benched for the second leg. The France international had a tough time in the first leg and similarly looked poor at the weekend, failing to keep pace with Anthony Gordon for Newcastle’s winner at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

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With clean sheets being a rarity under Liam Rosenior something has to give, dropping Fofana for another profile or pairing could be the secret to success for the Blues, but it’s better to try something than to watch the side leak goals for the rest of the campaign.<\/p>\n

Tactical Alteration<\/h3>\n

The same journalist also reported that Chelsea<\/a> finished their final training session for the second leg with a unique back line. According to these reports, Trevoh Chalobah was playing as a right-back while Jorrel Hato was at left-back. One of these makes more sense as Malo Gusto’s illness and Reece James’ injury means the right back spot is lacking in options.<\/p>\n

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The presence of Hato on the left either hints at a Marc Cucurella absence or a new role for the Spaniard. We could be looking at a back five with Cucurella as a wing-back or a back four with the Euros winner as a winger. The lack of options out wide could force such a shift with Jamie Gittens and Estevao being unavailable, leaving only Pedro Neto or Alejandro Garnacho as wingers who can play on the left.<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n

CREDIT: IMAGO \/ Sportimage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the first leg between Chelsea and Paris-Saint Germain last week the Blues had their lineup leak early through French media. Ahead of their rematch on March 17, there has been a new leak from France suggesting two big changes, one regarding the makeup of the back four and the other looking at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":652231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,11,1367,1831],"tags":[6608],"class_list":["post-666809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-chelsea","category-paris-saint-germain","category-starting-line-up","tag-wesley-fofana"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666810,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666809\/revisions\/666810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}