We have some of the best deliverers of a ball in the world yet we waste their talents by purposely putting the ball short at the near post for the flick on. It was somewhat understandable when you have somebody dominant in the air to make those flicks like Kompany used to but when we don’t its pointless. not only are you fighting against the percentages to win the near post header but you’ve then got to actually get on the end of the flick too if we do.
If you put the balls in the right areas, the height advantage teams have over us is drastically reduced. Liverpool play their entire game around get in crosses and they don’t have a particularly tall set forwards to get on the end of them.
Defensively we’re atrocious. I mentioned this after the carabao cup game when inexplicably, angelino was the man at he back post coming up against their 8ft centre backs and it wasn’t a one off either. the week before we saw david silva marking Mings, and at Everton we saw Mina win every single ball into our box without any trouble. We’re at a height disadvantage that’s going to hinder us somewhat but it’s not an excuse, there’s still things you can do.
Given certain players are never winning a header against opponents a foot bigger than them, Why don’t we Stick men on the posts, or at least the back one to give the keeper some security and encourage him to come for more crosses? for guys that spend most of the game outside of their box, they’re strangely stuck to their line for set pieces. That’s not a knock on Ederson or bravo either it’s clear that’s the tactic for whatever reason. To go further on that, we could start leaving more forwards upfield for the threat of the counter and to clear the box giving the keeper less to deal with.
We’ve got specialists for this, I’m sure they’re trying stuff in training and definitely know more than any of us on how to defend set pieces but when we’re seeing the same things every week it gets incredibly frustrating for fans and makes us question why we continue with the approach we take