Thread by @babuyagu

Lots of reasons. Firstly, we are generally a small team. I am guessing maybe the smallest in the EPL given that Man City have bigger full backs in Mendy and Walker. So, our full backs are going to need to do more than most at defensive set pieces in their zones. Not to mention

https://twitter.com/zoo18272900/status/1398388895109332992

on attacking set-pieces. We need some height from somewhere. You have seen this season who much less of a threat we look once we lost Virg. Gomez never really looked a threat on set pieces. Looking at this, I am not sure Konate is either. Just 18 shots in 3 season and rarely gets

anything on target. But that is definitely something you can help him with on coaching. If nothing else though, he is a big unit that the opponents need to worry about - even as a decoy he is taking the attention of one of the opponents best defenders.

The big one though is in helping us sustain attacks. If you watch back the West Brom game, notice how Wood was able to win the ball from most clearances and goal kicks? It meant we struggled to build up momentum, pin them in their half and just grind them down. Because every time

our attack broke down, the cleared it to Woods, he would battle with Phillips, head it back to one of his runners or bring it down, and then use that as a platform to attack us. Our whole team has to then run back 70 yards - win the ball and then build the attack again 70 yards

from their goal with their whole team behind the ball again. Instead we want to be able to turn the screw on them. When an attack breaks down... win that long ball or clearance right back and then keep West Brom pinned back and under constant pressure which is mentally exhausting

A big part of that is Fabinho who had (IMO) his worst game against West Brom. But Phillips just never got the hang of Woods at all either and made him look like peak Vieri. And if we need to deal with 15 counter-attacks against West Broms of this world, we are far more likely to

have more of those games where we drop points to the bottom 10 in the league than if we only have to face 2 or 3 counters a game. Which underpinned our record of winning 20/20 against the bottom ten a couple seasons back.

And, of course, the other big thing is just dealing with long balls and crosses. I'm sure you've noticed that teams like aiming runners into that gap between Trent and Gomez/Matip/Phillips. Because Trent is all the width in our system and also part of the counter-press, he will

naturally be ahead of the ball a lot and late getting back so teams want to attack that with long balls and switches of play. A big unit will cut out a lot of those instead of them going over his head. Likewise on crosses we want CBs who will get their heads on most of them.

Sorry, should be this in the first tweet

*So, our CBs are going to need to do more than most at defensive set-pieces in their zones.