Dead Ball Specialist

[CityStu]

Kolarov's attempts are nowhere near consistent enough for him to be considered a specialist.

I disagree. Compared to other players considered specialists, Kolarov scores a big percentage of the free kicks he shoots from. He's not the best at crossing a dead ball and I think we need to improve our decision making as to whether we shoot or put the ball in the box from dead balls.

This is true. As much as I am not a fan of Kolarov in defense he actually has a fairly high opportunity conversion rate compared to some that many would classify as the best in the world. If you don't believe me look at Ronaldo and Cavani.

That said, I do think Fernandinho, Yaya, and Jovetic will take up that mantle this season.

Exactly. Ronaldo's look fancy when they go in but the majority of the time he smashes them harmlessly over the bar. I'd much rather have an unassuming bloke like Kolarov who has an excellent record for hitting the corners and scores a much higher proportion of the free kicks he takes. Garrido was exactly the same - wonderful free kick technique yet rarely had the big name to push others out of the queue.

I think we've got a fair few players who can put their foot through a ball in Yaya, Fernandinho, Dzeko, Negredo, Aguero and Kolarov so we might see a few free kicks tapped sideways for one of these guys to strike on the run. Tried a quick hunt on YouTube to see if there was any evidence of Jojo being a good taker but couldn't find any. Looks like the kind of guy who could curl/dip one over a wall though.

 

[Kompany is King]

Kolarov £10M to Juve. Quick move for Baines. KIll 2 birds with one stone by hacking off all the RAGs too.

£10m to Juve. Is this recent news? I wouldn't think Juve would spend that kind of money but time will tell.

 

[kippaxchris]

We haven't had a decent corner taker since Adam Johnson left i remember him setting up 4 from corners in 1 game against Burnley. He really was a great player for us and i would still take him back.

 

[2sheikhs]

Nasri can take a good free kick. At least he makes the keeper work instead of hitting row z.

 

[kippaxchris]

Nasri can take a good free kick. At least he makes the keeper work instead of hitting row z.

Not seen him take one for a while but i would imagine he would be his own wall whilst trying to shield the ball from the oppositions wall

 

[shadowyu]

For me, Kolarov is one of the best in the world when it comes to free kicks. I don't know the stat but the conversion rate has to be really good. He is not great on corners though.

 

[Carver]

We're not one of the worst teams at set pieces as a whole, in fact, we're one of the best because we're good at scoring from corners. I don't have stats for corners for the whole of the season, however, at the end of April we were 4th with 7 goals. Rags (14), Chelsea (10) and Wigan (9) were ahead of us. In 2011/12 we scored the most goals from corners in the league with 15.

This is how each team fared last season when it came to scoring from set pieces.

1) Manchester U****d – 26
2) Chelsea – 24
3=) Manchester City – 18
3=) Norwich City– 18
3=) Stoke City – 18
6=) Arsenal – 17
6=) Reading – 17
8=) Liverpool – 16
8=) West Ham – 16
10) Sunderland – 15
11=) Fulham – 14
11=) West Brom – 14
11=) Wigan – 14
14) Aston Villa – 13
15) Everton – 12
16) Southampton – 11
17=) Newcastle – 10
17=) Tottenham – 10
19) QPR – 7
20) Swansea – 5

Set piece goals (18) comprised of 7 corners up 'til April, we scored 4 penalties so that's 7 goals from free kicks, throw-ins and 'corners from 26th April on'. Goals from free kicks is obviously both direct shots and crossed shots where someone gets on the end of it.

I don't remember many direct goals from free kicks last term though. Kolarov vs Sunderland?
Look at Liverpool, Spurs & Everton, didn't Suarez Bale & Baines score quite a few?

Something that I've noticed is that we had very few opportunities to score from set pieces under Mancini's reign as we didn't get many direct free kicks when we played with a slow build up. Teams were in position to defend and a player would have someone backing up so would be not too likely to give away a free kick around the area.

An interesting stat from Opta is that if you only counted goals from open play, i.e. if you got rid of all the goals from penalties, corners, free kicks & throw-ins we would have dropped 3 points but won the league from Spurs by 3 points. The rags would have scored 27 goals less and got 21 points less, trailing behind Arsenal in 4th . Funny thing stats.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.joe.ie/football/premier-league/man-united-wouldnt-have-won-the-premier-league-if-only-goals-from-open-play-counted/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.joe.ie/football/premier-leag ... y-counted/</a>

 

[Silva Service]

We're not one of the worst teams at set pieces as a whole, in fact, we're one of the best because we're good at scoring from corners. I don't have stats for corners for the whole of the season, however, at the end of April we were 4th with 7 goals. Rags (14), Chelsea (10) and Wigan (9) were ahead of us. In 2011/12 we scored the most goals from corners in the league with 15.

This is how each team fared last season when it came to scoring from set pieces.

1) Manchester U****d – 26
2) Chelsea – 24
3=) Manchester City – 18
3=) Norwich City– 18
3=) Stoke City – 18
6=) Arsenal – 17
6=) Reading – 17
8=) Liverpool – 16
8=) West Ham – 16
10) Sunderland – 15
11=) Fulham – 14
11=) West Brom – 14
11=) Wigan – 14
14) Aston Villa – 13
15) Everton – 12
16) Southampton – 11
17=) Newcastle – 10
17=) Tottenham – 10
19) QPR – 7
20) Swansea – 5

Set piece goals (18) comprised of 7 corners up 'til April, we scored 4 penalties so that's 7 goals from free kicks, throw-ins and 'corners from 26th April on'. Goals from free kicks is obviously both direct shots and crossed shots where someone gets on the end of it.

I don't remember many direct goals from free kicks last term though. Kolarov vs Sunderland?
Look at Liverpool, Spurs & Everton, didn't Suarez Bale & Baines score quite a few?

Something that I've noticed is that we had very few opportunities to score from set pieces under Mancini's reign as we didn't get many direct free kicks when we played with a slow build up. Teams were in position to defend and a player would have someone backing up so would be not too likely to give away a free kick around the area.

An interesting stat from Opta is that if you only counted goals from open play, i.e. if you got rid of all the goals from penalties, corners, free kicks & throw-ins we would have dropped 3 points but won the league from Spurs by 3 points. The rags would have scored 27 goals less and got 21 points less, trailing behind Arsenal in 4th . Funny thing stats.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.joe.ie/football/premier-league/man-united-wouldnt-have-won-the-premier-league-if-only-goals-from-open-play-counted/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.joe.ie/football/premier-leag ... y-counted/</a>

Proof that if we had as much success as the Rags had with free kicks, we would have run away with the title.

 

[i went to rotherham]

It's strange that, these days, any free kick around the penalty area is automatically handed to the free kick 'specialist' much as is being debated now. Why is it you never see a 'routine' straight off the training ground any more. Surely if we started to throw a few of these into the pot, alongside someone with a shot like Kolorov, it would keep the opposition guessing a little and open up the scoring options. At the moment these free kicks are, generally, easy to defend against, because of the lack of variety.