Direct football and City

Colin Bells Boots said:
Corners do not appear to be an effective option for our defenders as the numbers of goals scored by them will clearly testify.

I saw a post stating that Dias hasn't scored for 3 seasons !
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…and that was a goal from open play



1min 30secs
 
Marvin. said:
At the weekend I watched Arsenal win another game with a set-piece goal. On the Sunday evening, Spurs went to Everton and scored at least 2 goals direct from corners. At Brentford, Kayode was flinging balls in from long distance and most teams are suddenly using long throw-ins.

This season, according to Arsenal.com, "Arsenal have scored 11 goals via set pieces in the Premier League this season, two more than any other side (Chelsea, 9). 69% of our goals in 2025/26 have come from set pieces (11/16), the highest ratio by a team in a single Premier League campaign." Teams copy success. It's much easier to copy Arsenal's set-pieces than it is to copy Pep's possession based football because Pep's football is based on technique. It's easier to learn physical routines.

The corner routines have become farcical with organised blocking of the keeper and defenders. It's not football, it's basketball. Fortunately for City, we have Donnarumma and he protects us from the melees that are most corners now. Defensively we need to cope with these tactics, but I don't want City to adopt them. Alongside the increased focus on set-pieces, I think there is the development of power and physicality in the game such that many teams have running machines in midfield. I don't mind that so much. There has definitely been a move away from Pep's possession based football. Bournemouth play with power. They press their opponents, and they play aggressively with forward passes. It's very exciting to watch a Semenyo or a Yaya barrelling past players so I am not so much against the increase in physicality. Good sides play with power and finesse e.g., PSG. For me, Arsenal have gone too far. They are de-risking, putting more into not conceding but using possession to win set-pieces. But perhaps I just don't like them.

Not all teams are adopting the set-pieces and physicality. Liverpool are not, Man Utd are not. Football needs City and Pep to be successful, otherwise it will become even more prevalent. It seems like a no-brainer to focus on technical ways of scoring goals, cheap-wins if you like, but if you do that, you move away from players like David Silva and focus on brute force. I prefer to watch City, PSG, Barcelona. Fortunately, there is no danger that Pep will change his ways.
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Basket Ball is non-contact. Maybe you are thinking of kabbadi?

Scoring direct from a corner wasn't allowed at one point, it means no one else on your side gets a touch, W.H.Smith being the first to do it.
 
tackeds said:
Is it the delivery or is it the ability or positioning in the box thats killing us? Probably a bit of both. Phil seems to take them from both sides now and the accuracy seems decent but maybe theres not enough power on them. But everyone seems to just expecting someone else to head it to goal. Cant understand why were so bad at them. Who would be better at delivering them?Cherki?
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Villa have a huge keeper and yet every ball either hit the front man or straight on top of the keeper
 
I think we should get back to possession football and piss everyone off. We might win the league again.
 
The main issue with our set pieces is the lack of aggression when attacking the ball. its the same as our pressing and reluctance to make an actual tackle. its always done without aggression and any genuine desire to make sure they're the one to make first contact.

So many people shitting on our set piece coach because we havent scored from one, but they're all completely ignoring the defensive aspect of set pieces. We've looked very solid defending set pieces, arsenal and brentford are two of the best if not the best 2 and we remained solid throughout both of our away fixtures with them. Being solid defensively from set pieces is far more important, hopefully the improvement in attacking set pieces comes in time.
 
mattcity5 said:
I hate it all, I almost think if it carries on like this there will be rule changes at some point, though I'm not sure what. Maybe limiting the number of attacking players in the 6 yard box or something.
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Just get the fuckers with the whistle to apply the rules properly. Running into a goalkeeper to stop him playing the ball while not making an attempt to play the ball yourself is an offence. Just blow the bloody whistle every time. It would soon stop. I get the impression the powers that be would rather like Arsenal to win the league this year.

We don't need more rules to ignore, we need to apply the rules that we do have.
 
Colin Bells Boots said:
Corners do not appear to be an effective option for our defenders as the numbers of goals scored by them will clearly testify.

I saw a post stating that Dias hasn't scored for 3 seasons !
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As an Instagram model he's obviously got to be careful to protect his looks, its crazy to expect him to attempt headers, just think of the damage it could do to his hairstyle or perfect, blemish free skin... it could take weeks of treatment with careful application of pore cleanser, skin toner and moisturiser to rectify any damage from his forehead coming into contact with a muddy football.
 
ninjamonkey said:
The main issue with our set pieces is the lack of aggression when attacking the ball. its the same as our pressing and reluctance to make an actual tackle. its always done without aggression and any genuine desire to make sure they're the one to make first contact.

So many people shitting on our set piece coach because we havent scored from one, but they're all completely ignoring the defensive aspect of set pieces. We've looked very solid defending set pieces, arsenal and brentford are two of the best if not the best 2 and we remained solid throughout both of our away fixtures with them. Being solid defensively from set pieces is far more important, hopefully the improvement in attacking set pieces comes in time.
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You want City to follow Pulis and Arsenal?

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Don't get this modern day obsession with set piece coaches, I'm sure they didn't even exist until the last few years.

Mind you, I look forward to the day when we score from a corner then the camera pans to our set piece coach on the bench looking really pleased with himself while the commentator bigs him up, as seems to happen to every other team, usually against us...
 
Arsenal have taken the Premier League back a decade. For the moment, their brand of football is better than ours but I think we can play our game better and beat them.
 
PGMOL needs to toughen up on the refereeing of corners. Donnarumma's left arm was clearly held for Bournemuth's equaliser. Generally speaking, I am getting annoyed as a neutral watching the level of foul play and wrestling at corners. The threshold for foul play is now too high. I think at some point PGMOL are going to have to issue an edict on this.
 
Marvin. said:
PGMOL needs to toughen up on the refereeing of corners. Donnarumma's left arm was clearly held for Bournemuth's equaliser. Generally speaking, I am getting annoyed as a neutral watching the level of foul play and wrestling at corners. The threshold for foul play is now too high. I think at some point PGMOL are going to have to issue an edict on this.
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Manchester City ruined football with our robotic and lifeless football where no player got to express any kind of individuality at all depending on whether you've watched 90 mins of Manchester City in the last 8 years.

So now football wants to regress 30 years to try and level the playing field. Hooking the goalies arm is fine. Kicking the piss out of Jack Grealish was welcomed. Proper "work 'ard" football is clearly what we need back.
 
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