Chelsea reach agreement for summer deal after Mauricio Pochettino consultation
Chelsea have reportedly reached an agreement to appoint Brentford's Bernardo Cueva as the club's new set piece coach after the end of the current campaign.
According to David Ornstein, the 36-year-old Mexican will continue to work for the Bees through to the current season's end, at which point he will make the short move to the Blues to lead the club's set piece department.
Chelsea have been without a set-piece coach since the departure of Anthony Barry to Bayern Munich in April 2023, and have only scored seven from dead-ball situations in 2023/24. Now, with Mauricio Pochettino's consultation and support, it appears the club have finally found their replacement to start work in the summer.
Cueva joined the Bees from Chivas in September 2020, whilst the club was still in the Championship. That season they were promoted and ever since have remained a feature of the Premier League, with his role visible for all to see.
During their final season in the second tier Thomas Frank's side scored 12 goals from set pieces. Those numbers increased upon their advancement to the top-flight, and they become vastly more important as they made up a greater share of the team's strikes.
In the 2021/22 season the 15 set piece goals scored accounted for 30 percent of their overall goal total, then last campaign the 16 set piece goals made up 27 percent of Brentford's goals.
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Interestingly, Cueva follows a long line of set piece coaches from Brentford to be snapped up by Premier League rivals. Nicolas Jover worked under Dean Smith before moving to work under Pep
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