Set Pieces

[TheGhost]

I agree.. We definitely score more that way. E.g. against arsenal and united this season.

We have scored 2 from corners this season The only team having more is Arsenal with 9. 5 other teams have scored 2. The other 13 have scored 1 or less.

We have taken 162 corners, so our conversion rate currently stands at 1.2% this season.

We certainly have a low percentage, but I wouldn't necessarily say its a problem for us. I would rather us keep possession from he corner by playing it short, than boot it in the box and have a significant chance of losing it. Especially considering we are easily countered at the moment.

The ‘get it in the mixer Neanderthals’ have learned nothing in watching Pep ball for 8 years.

 

[Vic]

Not at pace it isn’t.

"At pace..." If ever there was an overused and meaningless phrase that's it.

As in "Walker runs at pace" though we all know the pace he runs at isn't what it was.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

"At pace..." If ever there was an overused and meaningless phrase that's it.

As in "Walker runs at pace" though we all know the pace he runs at isn't what it was.

The harder you kick a football, the less accuracy you have. It’s pretty basic physics.

 

[Feed the Elk]

With the exception quality of players we have it definitely feels like we underperform at set pieces.
It always seems off the cuff. Even when we go short from corners they seem to be caught unawares, and would it be so hard to spend ten minutes to rehearse a routine to shift the ball for a free kick

 

[bluenova]

The harder you kick a football, the less accuracy you have. It’s pretty basic physics.

And, to add to the difficulty, the harder you hit it, the more accuracy you need.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

And, to add to the difficulty, the harder you hit it, the more accuracy you need.

Yeah, corners are what they are. However innovative teams are, they pretty much always revert back to the 2-3% success rate in the long term.

Remember when Stoke’s opponents used to give away corners rather than throw ins as Delap was more accurate throwing the ball?

 

[Alexia_Ko]

Our set pieces coach is stealing a living. 4 goals came today from rebound situations after corners or free kicks. We don’t score from them, don’t even threaten from them but we are beginning to concede them regularly.

We can’t even do the basics at set pieces any more. We can’t head the ball outwards, we don’t close people down and when we attack them the ball comes in with either zero pace or no accuracy. It’s pathetic. We hardly even threaten from direct free kicks.

James French either needs to go or fix up.

 

[skillman]

Our set pieces coach is stealing a living. 4 goals came today from rebound situations after corners or free kicks. We don’t score from them, don’t even threaten from them but we are beginning to concede them regularly.

We can’t even do the basics at set pieces any more. We can’t head the ball outwards, we don’t close people down and when we attack them the ball comes in with either zero pace or no accuracy. It’s pathetic. We hardly even threaten from direct free kicks.

James French either needs to go or fix up.

Doesn’t help when the ones on the edge of the box (Savinho) run away from the ball rather than challenging.

But I agree FWIW.

 

[adopted_manc]

So, we all know Pep is a genius, but he is also a pedant for detail...

How, can we be so bad at set pieces? I understand we do take the occasional decent free kicks but our corners and penalties are awful in general, even our throw ins seem to be wild and often result in us losing the ball.

Last night was just another game where we have not been able to make corners count, we are racking up a ridiculous amount of them with teams camped in their box so surely to God we should be utilising them more? I just can't see how we have a Manager who obsessed over the smallest detail yet we still cannot do something so fundamental to the game properly.

Obviously the figures below are for this season but looking back at last year a record 151 goals stemmed from corners, accounting for 13.9 per cent of all goals scored in the Premier League. Seems mad we aren't taking advantage where other teams clearly are doing.

I thought we were really bad last year, but we haven't improved at all this year :-)

Shows it wasn't all Juanma Lillo's fault...

 

[ninjamonkey]

Our set pieces coach is stealing a living. 4 goals came today from rebound situations after corners or free kicks. We don’t score from them, don’t even threaten from them but we are beginning to concede them regularly.

We can’t even do the basics at set pieces any more. We can’t head the ball outwards, we don’t close people down and when we attack them the ball comes in with either zero pace or no accuracy. It’s pathetic. We hardly even threaten from direct free kicks.

James French either needs to go or fix up.

Scored from a corner at the weekend and fodens goal last night was the result of a corner too. Can't say we dont threaten from them when they've resulted in a goal in each of the last two games.

Defending them, we're stuck at the minute, if we stick players on the edge to block efforts from the edge it means we don't have anybody to come and act as a shielder for the keeper, and we suffer that way instead. We switched it slightly after villa game to stop shots from the edge and then we had all manner of problems with the keeper having no protection.

Reality is we need the keeper to be much better in those situations but that doesnt just happen overnight so we've got a clear weakness however we set up to defend set pieces.

 

[.db.]

We should have scored from three corners in the first half against Bournemouth a few weeks back alone. Two free headers and a ball that fell between two of our players who couldn’t get a shot off.

 

[BorgElites]

Scored from a corner at the weekend and fodens goal last night was the result of a corner too. Can't say we dont threaten from them when they've resulted in a goal in each of the last two games.

Defending them, we're stuck at the minute, if we stick players on the edge to block efforts from the edge it means we don't have anybody to come and act as a shielder for the keeper, and we suffer that way instead. We switched it slightly after villa game to stop shots from the edge and then we had all manner of problems with the keeper having no protection.

Reality is we need the keeper to be much better in those situations but that doesnt just happen overnight so we've got a clear weakness however we set up to defend set pieces.

which is really weird as i felt defensively we looked sound after Donnarumma came in, think about the Arsenal game, they are the kings of corners and set pieces and had plenty against us but we looked so solid and dealt with them easily, last few games have really confused me

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Fulham were second bottom for set piece goals before yesterday too s it’s not like they are masters of them. Our defending has been woeful in recent weeks.

 

[ninjamonkey]

which is really weird as i felt defensively we looked sound after Donnarumma came in, think about the Arsenal game, they are the kings of corners and set pieces and had plenty against us but we looked so solid and dealt with them easily, last few games have really confused me

I agree. Up until villa we looked incredibly well set up defensively. We handled both arsenal and brentford away with little problem and they're the two best sides at set pieces.

Without looking back on it, I suspect we were cheating a bit on not covering the edge of the box which villa identified and exploited so we've had to adjust since then to avoid the obvious problems that causes. These set piece coaches spend all day analysing every sides setup, there's always a weakness to find and once its found you have to change it up. We have an obvious issue with the keeper not being comfortable dealing with balls in, it's a hard thing to compensate for.

 

[Saddleworth2]

There was a great deal of similarity to their four goals. Each came from cut backs/corners where we defended deep and left acres of space outside the penalty area. Each goal they had unmarked players waiting to run onto the ball completely unchallenged. I get that we have to protect the goalkeeper but we have a defensive midfielder and three others who are perfectly capable of filling those spaces and tracking runners. Defensively it was amateur hour.

 

[Alexia_Ko]

Scored from a corner at the weekend and fodens goal last night was the result of a corner too. Can't say we dont threaten from them when they've resulted in a goal in each of the last two games.

Defending them, we're stuck at the minute, if we stick players on the edge to block efforts from the edge it means we don't have anybody to come and act as a shielder for the keeper, and we suffer that way instead. We switched it slightly after villa game to stop shots from the edge and then we had all manner of problems with the keeper having no protection.

Reality is we need the keeper to be much better in those situations but that doesnt just happen overnight so we've got a clear weakness however we set up to defend set pieces.

We hardly threaten from direct set pieces. The reality is Gvardiol and Foden’s goals were due to luck of where the ball dropped. Not the set piece being good

 

[GaudinoMotors]

The ‘get it in the mixer Neanderthals’ have learned nothing in watching Pep ball for 8 years.

They must have been in their caves, in 2023 especially. Its the current crop that either arent good enough, or have much to learn.

 

[HateUefaLoveCity]

Have we not scored from corners in each of our last 4 games?

 

[ninjamonkey]

We hardly threaten from direct set pieces. The reality is Gvardiol and Foden’s goals were due to luck of where the ball dropped. Not the set piece being good

I might have agreed with you a few weeks ago about lacking a threat from set pieces, but you just cannot say that after scoring from them in two successive games. It's no different to saying Foden doesnt look like scoring this season, after hes bagged 4 in a week.

Gvardiols goal was a very good cross into the box, met by O'Reilly, who probably should have scored himself really but Gvardiol was there and alert to get it in. It was also only possible because of Bernardo interference with the keeper, that has all been worked on.

Fodens goal, Yes, definitely some fortune in where the keeper punches it but then we aren't saying every goal we concede from clearing the ball from a corner is unlucky on our part.

 

[Alexia_Ko]

Have we not scored from corners in each of our last 4 games?

Our free kicks are pitiful