“Not always the outcome” – Liam Rosenior defends decision to not use innovate tactics | OneFootball

Liam Rosenior has explained his decision to not use an innovative corner tactic against Arsenal in yesterday’s defeat.

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Chelsea went into yesterday’s game against Arsenal knowing that set pieces were going to be crucial, and indeed they proved to be. The Blues conceded two and scored one, after a whole week of build up talking about them.

One thing had been speculated was that the Blues were going to use a tactic we saw before – leaving more attackers forward at defensive set pieces to create space for their goalkeeper to claim the ball. Liam Rosenior was asked after the game why he hadn’t done that after all.

Rosenior on why Chelsea didn’t use “three up” corner tactic

Chelsea leave three players upfield at a set piece against Tottenham.

“One [reason we didn’t use it], they would have prepared for that themselves. They’re very, very good at that. Two, when I actually analysed those corners back, they were very, very close to scoring. It’s not always the outcome,” Rosenior said.

It’s obviously a risk-reward balance, and we appreciate that it’s more important to look at more than just the outcome. But still, while Arsenal were “close” to scoring from those corners, they actually did score from the corners yesterday.

If your team is really bad at something and the opposition is really good, that seems like the best moment to try and shake things up, rather than just be resigned to your fate.

In other news…

Chelsea’s top rated outfield players yesterday were both defenders, with Trevoh Chalobah rock solid at the back despite an aerial siege.

Reece James was the other outfield player rated with a 7.1 in the game. He was even more effective than Chalobah, effectively delivering the goal and creating more attacking threat than most of his colleagues.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: