All the top sides kept a clean sheet on this round of fixtures. They had much more testing fixtures and some had to absorb more crosses and defensive pressure from superior players and teams than Sheff Utd. They were all dogged and resilient and all defended set pieces and aerial crosses extremely well.
We didn't !
Sheff Utd not only scored from a header but they had two good headed chances as well. Sheff Utd can't score for toffee ,except against a rank 10 man Geordie outfit from the pelanty spot.
We are diabolical aerially and although Mourinho has clearly tried to sort this out by immediately putting Dier back to CD and also buying Rodon who is being eased in and probably wasn't Mourhino's first choice ( or second) but so far it's not been enough.
Look at all the other top teams and their central defenders , even footballing teams like Emirates Marketing Project have finally sorted out the weakness they had there by buying Diaz and bringing Stones back in. They also have a very decent defender aerially in Laporte, waiting in the wings.
Man Utd - Maguire, Lindelof
Liverpool - Van Dyke, Matip
Arsenal - Luiz , Holding, Gabriel
Leicester - Evans , Tungay ?
Everton - Keane , Mina , Holgate ?
We are badly lacking a commanding centre half aerially and it's costing us dearly.
The concept is right, but the teams you are highlighting haven't figured out their defence.
United, conceded 24
Pool, conceded 21
Everton, conceded 21
Chelsea, conceded 23
Not good numbers for top level sides (we are 17, City is 13 as comparison)
I would agree we need a replacement for Toby, preferably one that is dominant aerially, I'm sure Jose is aligned, the issue is Dias (who was a risk) was 60M+