The Athletic’s excellent piece about Chelsea’s new background staff under Graham Potter has interesting new snippets and insight on each of them, but it’s the information about goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts that particularly caught our attention.
It’s noted that Roberts’ time at Brighton was best summed up by the rise of Robert Sanchez.
The Spaniard moved to Brighton as a 15 year old and had some loan spells in the lower leagues before becoming the Seagulls’ first choice keeper at the start of the 2020 season.
Roberts is given credit for “fast-tracking” Sanchez to the first team because of his abilities with the ball at his feet, and his accurate long kicking.
We could see major changes in the way that Edouard Mendy and Kepa Arrizabalaga are taught to play – or perhaps another youth team prodigy accelerated to the first team if Roberts doesn’t like what he sees from the current number one and two.
