The off-season did not feel that long without an international tournament. With the elongated internationals heading into mid-June, the intrigue over Chelsea's change of ownership and transfer speculation, the start of pre-season has come around quickly.
It will be a month from today when Thomas Tuchel travels with his squad up to Goodison Park for Chelsea's first Premier League clash of the 2022/23 campaign against Everton.
Chelsea's pretty abysmal record at Everton was aided by April's dismal 1-0 loss that proved to be a vital three points for Frank Lampard in the Toffees' hunt for survival. The tension around both clubs will be vastly relaxed next month but the intrigue is unlikely to dwindle.
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Tuchel has returned to Cobham, along with his players filtering back from their summer holidays, to enjoy the Surrey sunshine before jetting off to Los Angeles for the first stop in a busy tour of the USA. By the final pre-season match against Arsenal in Orlando, we should have a greater idea of what that opening line-up could be.
There is not only the prospect of new signings, with Raheem Sterling and Matthijs de Ligt major targets this summer, but the potential of further squad exits, loans and maybe an unexpected breakthrough akin to the one Trevoh Chalobah embarked upon 12 months ago.
It seems foolish to pen any potential Chelsea team given, at the time of writing, the club have not officially signed anyone, but let's try anyway and revisit after the Everton game.
Going ultra-conservative for my first of two potential formations the German could field, I've stuck with the usual 3-4-2-1, the most used system since Tuchel replaced Lampard in January of 2021.
In the final press conference of last season, Tuchel, when pressed on a potential switch seemed to indicate he liked the current formation, citing other reasons for why the Blues faltered last term.
"I don't think it's a problem of structure that we have because we delivered in this structure at a very high level with our performances." Tuchel said. "It's not the plan to change it but maybe we are forced to. It's no problem to adapt and find solutions, but the problem is we are forced to be passive and it's what we don't like and we are not used to it. So I can answer the question more precisely when things move forward and we can start to act."
Going with last season's formation I've added in Sterling and De Ligt, Ben Chilwell and Reece James start together as wingbacks for the first time since November 2021 and Kai Havertz leads the attack.
But let's be riskier with the second formation prediction. A theme that will become quite relevant in the 2022/23 campaign will be how Tuchel goes about improving an underwhelming attack. Some of that comes down to recruitment, with Sterling and Raphinha targeted, while it looks like Hakim Ziyech will join Romelu Lukaku in Milan on a season loan.
The other part is evolving Chelsea's system into one that is more direct and dynamic. Adding an extra attacking player instead of a defender hopefully offers room for more opportunity, suits the attackers Tuchel has previously struggled to get the best out of, and can maximise some of the returning loanees.
I've gone for a back-two of Thiago Silva and De Ligt should the Dutchman sign from Juventus, Sterling would occupy a wider attacking role whilst it would allow one of Callum Hudson-Odoi or Christian Pulisic to gain more minutes. Overall looking like a 4-3-3 that could appear more as a 4-2-3-1 given Mason Mount's central role, not too dissimilar to one he's played in a 3-4-1-2 for Tuchel previously.
A three-man midfield also suits Conor Gallagher, who thrived at Selhurst Park from the right of a midfield trio and offered a consistent goal threat, something Chelsea have lacked in that area for several years.
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