Even though Mauricio Pochettino downplayed their significance last month, Chelsea is going to establish a set-piece department with specialized instructors for the entire team.
Since Anthony Barry left, Chelsea has not had a dedicated set-piece coach.
Chelsea is keeping an eye on a set-piece specialist to boost its dead-ball performance. Mauricio Pochettino has dismissed the idea of hiring a specialist, but Chelsea is planning to hire a set-piece coach for the upcoming season after just six goals from dead-ball situations this season.
Opinion:
I don’t think it’s the worst idea, though I would want the head coach (Mauricio Pochettino) to be on board with it. To give them the actual trust and freedom to run said plays and the style of defending them.
Arsenal, for instance, is showing you don’t need a specialist to make them efficient. Rice takes a lot of theirs, and he literally just floats an inswinger. It seems most of the corners they do are floated inswingers, which really anybody should be able to do.
This isn’t a new problem for us. We consistently rank among the top teams for winning corners. But we’re among the worst at scoring against them. Last season, we were third when ranked on goals per 100 corners.
One way to think about it is that we’re scoring at least 8–10 fewer goals a season from corners than our potential top 4 rivals like Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham. Unpacking why points to problems we all know too well.
Like not having many players who can shoot from outside the box. This makes short or out-swinging corners more dangerous. Or not having an elite striker. Haaland and Kane are both good at scoring from corners.
We do have a good target, like Virgil van Dijk, in Silva, but we don’t have corner-takers who can consistently exploit this. In fact, we haven’t had good corner takers for a while now. Chilwell is probably the best. But he’s been out so much. Enzo could get there. But he’s not there now. None of our academy products are good corner takers.
Having a dead-ball specialist coach is a smart move. Liverpool has a throw-in specialist, and it helped them. But, like so many things, there are deeper problems. And they are problems we’ve had for a while.
It’s probably a combination of all things. Actual training of set pieces, scouting of weaknesses in opponents, delivery, and the people on the receiving end. At least we can move on from the earlier ones while our players develop, or we can recruit new ones eventually.
Although your head coach not being on board makes you question how much he will even listen to the new guy, Hopefully, it will be part of the permanent side of the coaching staff, like Lord Hilario, rather than rotating ones that move with each new coach.
I am going down this list of previous players who could contribute on penalties, free kicks, corners, or headers (either defensive or offensive). Not that I would want all of them to still play with us, but they are all still playing football.
Solanke
Willian
Barkley
Jorginho
De Bruyne
Ziyech
Rudiger
Zouma
Can we also hire a throw-in coach as well, please? We are so poor that we might as well give the opposition the ball.
Share your opinions, Chelsea fans, in the comment section below!!