Chippy_boy
Well-Known Member
Perhaps a bit ironic posting this after the Burnley game where we sort of scored from a corner.
However, I was thinking yesterday about how utterly shite we are at corners and it occurred to me, is it any wonder? We are a small side, apart from our centre halves. It's hardly likely that Silva, KDB, Nolito or Sterling are going to score a header when battling with your typical English defender, is it. Aguero's movement gives him some hope, but he isn't the greatest header in the world and he himself is not tall. OK, so perhaps Toure could offer something, but we don't have a Dzeko or a Balotelli in the side anymore (I have no clue whether Nacho is any good in the air or not).
So if we are firing corners in the air, our realistic hope comes from perhaps Stones or Otamendi heading a goal. But they are bloody hopeless in the air. In fact, it dawned on me that pretty much all of our players are. Our defenders can manage to head a ball clear, but give them the opportunity to score and they couldn't hit a fucking barn door, let alone the back of the net.
How many times do we see Otamendi bursting through and getting on the end of a cross, only to head it wide? It's like every single game. He's scored 1 from a header I seem to remember in some distant memory, but why are these guys so bad? When John Terry would go forward he offered a serious goal threat and would bag a few every season, and yet our defenders score more like 1 per decade. Do we even practice heading the ball, FFS???
(It's not helped by letting Silva take them - he's absolutely woeful and hits the first man half the time. KDB at least can put the ball in the right area, at pace.)
Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and I agree: Whilst the situation is as it is, we should abandon aerial corners altogether. It's pointless. We just cannot do it and should give up. We should take short corners or fire them in low and give up on any aspiration of headed goals. Or practice heading the ball FFS.
However, I was thinking yesterday about how utterly shite we are at corners and it occurred to me, is it any wonder? We are a small side, apart from our centre halves. It's hardly likely that Silva, KDB, Nolito or Sterling are going to score a header when battling with your typical English defender, is it. Aguero's movement gives him some hope, but he isn't the greatest header in the world and he himself is not tall. OK, so perhaps Toure could offer something, but we don't have a Dzeko or a Balotelli in the side anymore (I have no clue whether Nacho is any good in the air or not).
So if we are firing corners in the air, our realistic hope comes from perhaps Stones or Otamendi heading a goal. But they are bloody hopeless in the air. In fact, it dawned on me that pretty much all of our players are. Our defenders can manage to head a ball clear, but give them the opportunity to score and they couldn't hit a fucking barn door, let alone the back of the net.
How many times do we see Otamendi bursting through and getting on the end of a cross, only to head it wide? It's like every single game. He's scored 1 from a header I seem to remember in some distant memory, but why are these guys so bad? When John Terry would go forward he offered a serious goal threat and would bag a few every season, and yet our defenders score more like 1 per decade. Do we even practice heading the ball, FFS???
(It's not helped by letting Silva take them - he's absolutely woeful and hits the first man half the time. KDB at least can put the ball in the right area, at pace.)
Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and I agree: Whilst the situation is as it is, we should abandon aerial corners altogether. It's pointless. We just cannot do it and should give up. We should take short corners or fire them in low and give up on any aspiration of headed goals. Or practice heading the ball FFS.