Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has suggested that the Blues need to sign tall players to solve their set-piece conundrum, according to a report in the Guardian.
The Blues have the worst record in the Premier League when it comes to defending corners this season conceding 9 goals from 110 deliveries so far this campaign.
Chelsea’s frailties at defending corners were exposed against West Ham with the Hammers scoring off a corner which was defended badly by the Blues in their 3-2 win over their London rivals at Stamford Bridge.
Now Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has spoken out regarding his team’s poor showing in defending set-pieces with his latest comments.
Speaking about his side’s poor defensive record at set-pieces, as cited in the Guardian, Lampard said:
“We’ve looked at set-pieces this season,
“When we came into the club we looked at the stats from last season. Last season we were bottom of the league defending set plays, in terms of teams getting big chances against us, and second bottom in attacking. We haven’t improved much this year.
“I really don’t like to talk about my own playing days but we didn’t work much at all on set pieces and there were a few reasons, mainly John Terry, Gary Cahill, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and [Branislav] Ivanovic. You’d stick it in an area and they would defend it or score goals.
“With Liverpool, I remember a lot of talk about them and set pieces a few seasons ago. They were zonal and conceding a lot. They signed Virgil van Dijk and he heads out everything. There’s a huge relation to personnel and if you don’t have that size, the main thing is trying to compete as hard as you can and making it difficult for other teams to score.
“But I’m not making excuses because we haven’t done that well enough and that has to improve. When you look at who you might bring in with the balance of the squad it is certainly something to take into account,” he added.
Frank Lampard and his Blues will now look to bounce back from their defeat against West Ham and qualify for the Champions League by winning their coming Premier League games this season as the season now draws towards its end.