CHELSEA were thankful for the finesse of Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud on Sunday afternoon as they beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park.
The Blues were all over Villa for the majority of the match but ended up finding themselves 1-0 at half time.
As is the situation for Chelsea on many occasions so far this season, Villa scored a scrappy goal that could and should have been avoided.
Chelsea lack that dominant 18-yard box defender – a leader type similar the legend that is John Terry.
They really need a player to stand up, command, and eat up anything that comes in to the box.
Frank Lampard needs his Virgil van Djik, a defender who comes in and completely changes the balance of the defence, gives them a vocal leader, but more importantly, gives them a brick wall but with the confidence to play.
As the cross came in for Villaās goal this afternoon, you had the feeling that it would not be dealt with.
No defender stood up, and although Andreas Christensen started off being vocal and organising for the cross, he shied away like a cat scared by a dog at the all important time.
Just when Lampard needed a centre back to take command and scoop up the threat, they all turned away and looked to shoulder the blame elsewhere.
This may well force Lampard to look at his transfer priorities. Naturally, he is looking at improving his attack, with a number of wasted attacking opportunities occurring once again today.
But Lampard really needs to sign a centre back, and he needs to go all out on signing one.
He should look for a Kalidou Koulibaly type of defender, even though that will be hard to attain.
But that calibre of player is certainly needed at the end of this season if Chelsea really are to close the gap on the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool.
The starting point needs to be at the back, and then work forward making improvements from there.
Lampard has not ever been confident with choosing two of his centre back choices, and has quite often rotated as a result.
This to me says all you need to know on his confidence in his centre backs, and I really hope that this means he will be looking for a new defender in the market.
Chelsea have to progress, but to do that they need a core point at the back, they havenāt got that yet.
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By: Anthony Chapman
Title: Chelsea must make centre-back a priority this summer as defensive flaws are exposed in narrow Aston Villa win
Sourced From: www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/11918725/chelsea-aston-villa-verdict-new-centre-back-priority/
Published Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2020 18:37:17 +0000
