Ballack confident in tactics

17 August 2009 14:51
Michael Ballack believes the Chelsea midfielders may have to work harder to adapt to the new diamond formation but feels it is up to them to show it can succeed. Chelsea have tended to play with two wingers and a lone forward in recent years, but Carlo Ancelotti has reintroduced the more compact 4-1-2-1-2 system. Questions have been raised over whether the system will prove effective for the Italian but, while Ballack accepts there may be a tricky transitional period, he is confident that the players can make it work. "Everybody is a little bit expectant about what we can achieve this year," he said. "We have a new manager and we play a new system. "We played it under Jose Mourinho when I arrived and it feels different not to play with wingers and to play with two strikers. "So tactically things will be different for us but it depends how you implement it, by which I mean you can play any system with good players and they have to show their ability. "It is not about the system - it is about how individuals perform on the pitch and whether they do the right things, so it is not as simple as just picking a system. "In a diamond formation, your attention is more on controlling the play. "You have more ball in midfield and one more man there as well, so you gain a small advantage through the centre but there's more hard work for the four midfielders because they have a lot of work to do on and off the ball in this system. "But there are many ways to win. There's not just one way to play football and you can have success with any system if you play it right. "It is not all about the system we play - that's just a new thing for us that we have to adapt to."

Source: SKY_Sports