If you watch football and find yourself asking why: why that shape, why that press, why that decision cost them the game…this newsletter is for you.

Every week, I pick one game and take it apart. Not the highlights, but the tactical detail underneath it. The structures, the decisions and the moments that most people miss.

My name is Lucas. I’m a football coach working toward my UEFA B licence and I run The Tactics Academy - an education brand built on one belief: that understanding the game deeply makes you better at it, whether you’re a coach, a player, or just someone who loves football more than is probably healthy.

This isn’t punditry. There are no hot takes here. What you’ll get every week is one game, with key insights picked out, with an honest eye on what worked, what didn’t and what the tactical picture actually looked like beneath the surface.

One game. One breakdown. Every week.

Let’s get into it.

Chelsea arrived in turmoil. Liam Rosenior had been sacked just four days earlier, following five straight Premier League defeats, their worst run in over a century, with the club having dropped from 6th to 8th in the table. Interim head coach Calum McFarlane was thrown straight into a Wembley showpiece on his first major occasion. To make it more interesting, Cole Palmer started on the bench.

Leeds came in unbeaten in seven across competitions and full of belief. Daniel Farke had built a side that pressed with intensity and threatened on the counter and crucially, they had already taken four points from Chelsea in the league this season, including a 3–1 win.

The script suggested an upset.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; Gusto, Chalobah, Tosin, Cucurella; Caicedo, Lavia; Neto, Fernández (c), Garnacho; Joao Pedro

Leeds United (3-4-2-1): Perri; Justin, Bijol, Struijk; Bogle, Ampadu (c), Tanaka, Gudmundsson; Aaronson, Okafor; Calvert-Lewin

Despite the noise from the Leeds end and the form on paper, it was Chelsea who looked the more composed side from the opening whistle.

The Blues recorded over 80% possession in the first 20 minutes, and McFarlane's setup was immediately clear, controlled build-up from the back, aggressive pinning of Leeds' wing-backs through the wide forwards and a deliberate intent to get the ball into the half spaces between Leeds' lines.

Leeds threatened first. A sharp through ball from Calvert-Lewin sent Brenden Aaronson clean through on goal, only for Robert Sánchez to produce a brilliant save with his right foot to keep it goalless. That moment was a warning, but it was also the moment Chelsea recognised they had the structural advantage to take this game to Leeds.

The most interesting tactical decision of the day was how Chelsea built up.

On paper they lined up in a 4-2-3-1. In possession, that morphed into a fluid 3-2-5. Marc Cucurella tucked inside as a left-sided centre-back alongside Chalobah and Tosin, creating an asymmetric back three. The double pivot of Lavia and Caicedo screened the central zones in front of them. Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho stayed wide and high, deliberately pinning Leeds' wing-backs Gudmundsson and Bogle to prevent them from stepping up freely into the press.

The two players who made this structure dangerous were Joao Pedro and Enzo Fernández.

Pedro varied his role constantly, sometimes acting as a traditional centre-forward pinning Bijol and Struijk, sometimes dropping deep into the line of Leeds' midfield to occupy them and create vertical space behind. That variation was the key. By dragging Bijol and Struijk in different directions, Pedro opened up the half-space pockets that Fernández and Malo Gusto exploited.

Gusto's role was particularly clever. Rather than acting as a traditional right-back, he frequently inverted into the right half space, receiving between Leeds' lines and progressing the ball through midfield. Fernández did the same on the left. Two inverted runners between the lines, both with the licence to pick the ball up facing forward.

Leeds operated in a 5-2-3 in higher pressing phases and dropped into a 5-4-1 low block when defending deeper. Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka anchored the midfield as a double pivot, with the back three and wing-backs forming a compact five behind them.

The press was man-oriented. The intention was to force errors high up the pitch by following Chelsea's players tightly into the build-up. The problem was that Chelsea's 3-2 base, with Cucurella tucking in meant that when Leeds pressed man-to-man, they ran out of bodies. Chelsea's wide forwards pinned the wing-backs deep, which meant Leeds couldn't push them up to extend the press. That left the central midfield two, Ampadu and Tanaka, exposed to either of Chelsea's pivots dropping deeper or Fernández and Gusto receiving between the lines.

When Chelsea couldn't play through? They went over the top and Pascal Struijk's positioning in the back three was particularly vulnerable to long balls into the channels.

That's exactly where the goal came from.

The 23rd minute. Chelsea broke the deadlock and the tactic that produced it was a perfect example of how they wanted to play.

It started with a long Sánchez goal kick. Pedro Neto contested the initial duel, Chelsea won the second ball and the high press triggered immediately. Joao Pedro pressed Struijk hard, forcing him into a loose touch in midfield. Chelsea regained possession in a dangerous area and the transition was instant. Wide play released Neto down the right channel and his clipped cross was inch-perfect.

Fernández had timed his run from the number ten role to absolute perfection. Drifting in unmarked between two Leeds defenders, he met the cross with a textbook header into the back of the net.

This was the move that defined the game. Long ball over the top into the channel where Struijk was vulnerable. High press the moment the ball came back into midfield. Quick wide release. Late, unmarked arrival from the inverted ten. Every layer of Chelsea's structure executing in a single sequence.

Fernández, the captain in this game, had delivered when his side needed him most.

Leeds came out of the break with greater intent. Farke made two changes at half-time, bringing on Joe Rodon and switching to a back four to add more bodies to the attack. The intensity rose. Substitute Anton Stach unleashed a 30-yard rocket that Sánchez tipped over the bar, another huge moment that kept Chelsea ahead.

But the structural problem for Leeds remained. Their build-up relied on verticality through the wing-backs and the two attacking midfielders dropping in to link with Calvert-Lewin. The narrow 3-4-2-1 shape made Bogle and Gudmundsson easy to pin back and once Chelsea forced them to defend rather than overlap, Leeds' attacking width disappeared.

Chelsea did exactly what experienced cup sides do in the second half of a one-goal lead. They controlled possession (54% to Leeds' 46%, 86% pass accuracy to Leeds' 81%). They forced fouls in midfield. They used Sánchez's diagonal switches to escape the press whenever it briefly bothered them. And when McFarlane needed a moment to reorganise his side, Sánchez went down for treatment at a convenient moment, drawing predictable frustration from the Leeds bench.

By the time Cole Palmer and Andrey Santos came on with 25 minutes to go, the game was effectively done.

For all the chaos around Chelsea with the sacking, the form, the protests, the slide down the table; this was a performance built on tactical clarity.

McFarlane identified that Leeds' man-oriented press had structural blind spots, designed a 3-2-5 in possession that exploited every one of them and trusted Pedro's hold-up play and Fernández's late runs to create the decisive moment. The 1-0 scoreline doesn't reflect how comprehensively Chelsea controlled this game. Sánchez was excellent when called upon. Pedro hit the post. Garnacho missed a tap-in. The margin should have been larger.

For Leeds, the disappointment will sting. Their 3-4-2-1 has been the foundation of a strong run, but in a single-game knockout against a side prepared specifically to expose its weaknesses, the wing-backs were neutralised, the central midfield two were overwhelmed and the back three was carved open by the long ball.

Chelsea now face Manchester City in the final on May 16th, a great chance for an interim manager to win silverware against Pep Guardiola and for a season teetering on the edge to end with a trophy.

One game. One breakdown. Every week.

If you found this useful, share it with a coach or player who thinks about football the way you do. And if you want to go deeper on tactical analysis and development, The Tactics Academy has you covered - link in my profile.

The Tactics Academy Newsletter | Issue #004