Shaka Hislop believes Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson is the reason they struggled against low-block teams
Shaka Hislop feels Nicolas Jackson’s inefficiency against deep-block is the reason why Chelsea have struggled to break them down.
Exploiting deep blocks is always difficult given the number of players who sit deep into defence and protect the goal. It takes pragmatics and individual brilliance to break a deep block.
Explained in simple terms, a deep block is mainly an out-of-possession approach when the opposition players mainly focus on protecting the defensive third of the pitch. The backline key aims to limit the space for opposition and break it.
And Chelsea have often struggled against these sides; we witnessed this against Brentford in a 2-0 defeat to them. But we had our chances to kill the game in the first half but missed plenty of chances.
During these situations, you need your striker to be alert and make a small chance count, which Jackson failed to do. The former West Ham United player Hislop certainly noticed that and claimed the Senegalese is the reason the Blues failed to break deep blocks, as he told ESPN:
“Once teams drop off and sit deep, that’s when you need your centre-forward, and Nicolas Jackson just has not been that player… Nicolas Jackson is not the six-yard box striker that Chelsea needs him to be, and that, for me, is why Chelsea is struggling against teams that want to sit deep.”
Jackson should know how to be a threat against teams that use deep blocks, given that he has played in La Liga and plenty of teams use these techniques to keep opposition attacks at bay. However, we cannot blame him entirely for the fact that he is learning and will eventually grow into a prolific striker. We need to have trust and patience in him; he seems to be doing impressively with four goals in the last two games.
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He gains experience with every game and should eventually establish himself as the club’s primary striker. After he adds that clinical edge and corrects his position, he can become a formidable striker who will be a threat for every side.