Former Chelsea and Scotland player Pat Nevin joined The Football Show with Joe Molloy to discuss Chelsea.
Chelsea scored three goals against Tottenham on Sunday but were overrun in the first half. It wasn't until N'Golo Kante came off the bench that they took control of the game.
Kante replaced Mason Mount to the surprise of most, but not Pat Nevin.
Nevin expected Mount to be the one to come off because he believes Thomas Tuchel is moving towards a 3-5-2. Not only that, he believes the 3-5-2 will serve this Chelsea team better than the past 3-4-2-1. Nevin feels that it's the midfield trio that will push Chelsea to new heights more than Romelu Lukaku.
“I think he wants the 3-5-2 and I think he's wanted it for a little while. He hasn't had the personnel to do it correctly," Nevin said.
"You've got Kante, Jorginho alongside Kovacic. They're not a set three in between the two wing backs. One will go or sometimes two will go, but they are three midfielders. That's what they are...when you put Kante in there it gives a different dynamic to it.
Then you can say to Havertz, just go up and stand beside or off Lukaku. You're a duo now.
He's just won the Champions League with what is basically a 3-4-2-1 and he's given up on it, I think he doesn't want it anymore. I think he wants 3-5-2.
With that group of players, it looks better. It looks much, much better than the team that just won the Champions League.
The personnel yes, but also that group in the middle there.
Who would want to play against Jorginho, who was arguably the best midfielder at the Euros, Kante, who is unreal, one of the best midfielders in the world if not the best at what he does, and Kovacic whose playing out of his skin just now.
That's horrendous to play against with the energy they've got, the attitude they've got.”
By switching formations, Nevin believes that Havertz will have a greater impact even if he's not the one scoring goals.
“Havertz had an okay-ish game, but his intelligent running is amazing for Lukaku.
Quite often Lukaku will play against one or two, usually two, but sometimes three around him. With Havertz up there he just drags them apart.
It was quite clear in the game against Zenit, Lukaku wasn't getting any space at all. Then he changed it to the two up front, Havertz dragged them a little bit further...Havertz moves upfront with him, the ball comes in from Azpilicueta but now Lukaku's got a yard. He didn't have a yard before. He had two people, sometimes three on him.
Lukaku will get you goals, he'll get you more goals if there's someone else stretching it, stretching those defenders.”
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