Diego Costa tries all the tricks in the book to rile defenders but it only works if they react to the Chelsea striker
Danny Higginbotham wants Premier League defenders to stop rising to Diego's games - because he'll only wind himself up
DIEGO COSTA wants and needs to live on the edge.
It’s how he gets the best out of himself.
You’d want the Chelsea star in your team, 100 per cent.
But when you play against him one of two things happen — he either winds up the opposition centre-back or winds himself up.
Didier Drogba was a different sort of striker. He didn’t try to wind you up. He was just a strong, physical player.
You didn’t want to get too tight defensively because of that strength and power. He’d turn and leave you for dead. He really was the ultimate physical specimen.
If Costa can’t wind you up, he turns it on himself. His mind goes off the game. So the first thing I’d say to Arsenal defenders Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny is whenever you are up against Costa, don’t let him touch you — don’t let him feel you.
If he feels you, he knows which way to turn. You have to keep him guessing.
Last season Gunners centre-half Gabriel got sent off when Costa wound him up and he reacted.
Of course, when he gets into the box you have to mark him. But outside the box, he wants to roll you, get down the outside or do something to make you retaliate. So keep him at arm’s length, which means that he can’t make you react.
Otherwise you are asking for trouble — and that normally means there’s only one winner.
It’s up to the centre-halves to deal with it. He tried it on with Ryan Shawcross last season, smelling his armpits to try to wind him up, but Ryan didn’t get involved.
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When he gets that reaction, Costa knows your concentration is going.
You have to make him frustrated and get him to do silly things because you’re not responding.
But you can’t get touch-tight because he’ll either roll you, or use any contact as an opportunity to fall over.
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