Caesar

I asked 5 professional scouts and 5 performance analysts to pick the highest-scoring players for each position for GW5. Scouts: Hornicek, Gabriel, Schade, DCL Analysts: Sels, Thiaw, Saka, DCL I was surprised to see Kevin Schade again, so I asked about him specifically. The answer was that Chelsea defending the second phase of attacks is possibly still the most repeatable issue out of all teams, and what happens after the first defensive action when possession changes hands is still their biggest problem. They have a lot of players ahead of the ball, their counterpress doesn't always prevent the opponent's second action, and the defensive line can subsequently be attacked before the structure has reset. Their FB-CB relationships is also awkward when the opponent attacks quickly into the space created by their possession structure. Brentford's ability to attack quickly, contest second balls and attack the box after an initial delivery makes this type of weakness particularly relevant. That's why Mamadou Sangare was also mentioned, but the scouts picked Schade specifically because, on top of that, Chelsea have shown repeated marking errors on set pieces. The idea behind defending them is brilliant, the execution so far... Not so much. Gabriel and Thiaw were picked mostly for set pieces, with both being mentioned as having less impressive CS potential, but enough upside to be worth the pick. Bogle and Maitland-Niles were mentioned as the biggest open-play threat defenders this week. DCL was mentioned as the striker with the most routes to goals against Palace.