One interesting decision by Mauricio Pochettino in the starting lineup today was picking Armando Broja ahead of Nicolas Jackson.
It wasn’t what we expected, and in the end it didn’t last long. At half time, the Albania striker was taken off for his counterpart. He barely got a kick of the ball, with Chelsea unable to really get the ball into dangerous positions in the first 45.
The change didn’t feel like a punishment, or even a reflection of Broja’s performance. To some degree this was likely planned. Broja is only just returning from almost a year out, and we were surprised to see him start at all. If the 45 minutes wasn’t already a programmed changed, we can’t imagine he would have done more than an hour.
Jackson has gone to to score, reinforcing the decision to use him in the second period. At long last we have what we wanted – genuine competition between two strikers up top.
What came were you watching, SuperFrank? Broja was taken off with good reason! His movement was non-existent and the lovely little lifted ball Sterling played to him (the one that would have put him in on goal) summed it up. Broja wasted it by failing to spin on his man an attack the space in behind.
Jackson, by contrast, offers a completely different dynamic. Both his willingness to run, and the timing and cleverness of his runs unsettles the defense in ways that Broja simply fails to approach. To me it’s no real competition. Jackson should be our first choice striker and our play (including his well taken goal) bear this out.