Back post nightmares - How should Chelsea solve the obvious weakness in our defence?
Having watched Chelsea play really well and look more than comfortable against Liverpool last night, it became very frustrating to see u...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2017/02/back-post-nightmares-how-should-chelsea.html
Having watched Chelsea play really well and look more than comfortable against Liverpool last night, it became very frustrating to see us concede another goal from a ball to the back post. So how are we to defend that area better?
It was bad enough to see Tottenham do it to us once, giving Eriksen the space and time on the ball to lift his head up, have a look to see Dele Alli at the back post, to then plonk the ball into the perfect area for him to attack and score. But for the identical situation to come about for a second time for Tottenham to double their lead and beat us on the night was simply ridiculous and we deserved to lose the game.
Being honest, I have feared every single opponent trying to do the same ever since but thankfully enough we have not been put to task until last night. Jordan Henderson was given the same space as Eriksen, played the ball countless times to the back post area and they made us pay to draw level and eventually share the spoils (despite our missed penalty!).
So far our problems at the back post has cost us four points but I am wary of it proving to be our achilles heel between now and the end of the season. I feel like putting all my money on the odds on an online casino to bet that we will concede in that area again!
You look at the Chelsea defence and it's blatently obvious that you need to attack our right side with a combination of Victor Moses and Cesar Azpilicueta in that area of the pitch. They are not the tallest of defenders on the planet and it does cause us problems. The question is how do we look to protect ourselves in that area?
Would swapping Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses solve it? Think about it for a second, Gary Cahill covers the left side of our back three so we are OK for height in that area to allow Moses to try and do his best supporting him. On our right we would have Apilicueta on that side of the three but with Alonso next to him it could provide better protection in the air and strenghten our options?
At this stage we cannot look to replace any of our back three as they are all playing outstandingly well so to consider dropping one of them for JT or Kurt Zouma is not an option.
One other area to look at would be the midfield and the fact that we have allowed the likes of Eriksen and Henderson to punish us with time and space to play. We need to be pressing higher up to shut down these areas and to stop the cross coming over in the first place!
What do you think a solution could possibly be?