Chelsea are reportedly keen to poach a set piece guru from Premier League rivals Brentford as they identify that as an area they could improve on next season.
The Blues are enduring a difficult campaign and just drew 2-2 with Brentford over the weekend, keeping Mauricio Pochettino’s side in 11th place in the table.
This is far from good enough for a club of Chelsea’s size, and it seems work is being done behind the scenes to work out who they can appoint to key roles to help turn things around.
According to the Telegraph, one figure being looked at is Brentford set piece statistician Bernardo Cueva, and this wouldn’t be the first time the Bees have lost a coach like this to a bigger club.
The report also notes that Nicolas Jover previously worked at Brentford before moving to Manchester City and later Arsenal, where he seems to be having a really positive impact.
Can Chelsea replicate Arsenal success at set pieces?
Arsenal haven’t always been the kind of team you associate with set piece success, but we’ve seen their defenders getting forward to score from corners and free-kicks on several occasions this season, so something’s clearly working well on the training pitch at London Colney.
Cueva seems like another exciting specialist in this area, with Brentford boasting a strong defensive record when it comes to set plays, and it seems Chelsea are keen to make this one of the areas they improve in ahead of next season.
This would be a blow for Brentford, but they’ve seemingly coped alright with this happening to them in the past, so Thomas Frank will no doubt hope he can still put together a decent backroom staff for the next campaign.
The Telegraph note that Pochettino is not specifically being involved in the setting up of a set piece department.