Mauricio Pochettino wants a set-piece specialist to arrive at the club in the way of a player to increase the advantage for the team.
According to 90 Min, Chelsea should bring a set-piece specialist, which Mauricio Pochettino has urged the club to do in the coming summer. The Blues are ranked well below in the Premier League’s set-piece table, as their manager now wants to improve their chances from those situations.
Football managers are increasingly looking at players who bring something different to the table, and Mauricio Pochettino has an idea. The Argentine manager has had a terrible start to life at Chelsea, managing an expensively assembled squad.
However, he feels the club lacks a set-piece specialist in his squad, which tends to give a different advantage to the side. For instance, Arsenal are one of the best teams from set pieces, as they tend to score regularly from those situations.
West Ham United found James Ward-Prowse in the summer, and the midfielder has made a significant impact with his splendid deliveries from set-pieces. Now, Pochettino remains eager to bring someone who can add some importance to the squad and effect results from their prowess in set-piece situations.
Pochettino said, “We work a lot on set-pieces. We have a group of analysts. After that, it is about the quality of the player, about the takers.”
“We don’t have a specialist. Maybe Chilly [Ben Chilwell] is good in the delivery, but we don’t have a specialist after that. “If you want to be good in set-pieces, you need good takers.
“When you have good takers, it is not down to the work. We work similarly, but the problem is to have good takers. Look at West Ham. What changed? The taker is Ward-Prowse. For sure, you can work, like West Ham were working. But now, you add a player like him, you increase the percentage.”
Chelsea have struggled in that aspect since the departures of a few of their former players. Mason Mount and Hakim Ziyech were good at delivering set-piece balls, while Marco Alonso was also someone excelling in those situations.
They might have to tap into the market for a specialist player in the coming period, meaning Pochettino will carefully look at options with those attributes. Whether they can find someone of that style remains the question, considering some of their targets point towards an improvement in that aspect.
For instance, they are chasing Victor Osimhen as their new striker, but they would still lack someone to deliver perfect balls on the Nigerian’s path. Hence, Chelsea must find the right player with those attributes and get the ball rolling in terms of bringing about an improvement in the side.
