Corners

[robbiez666]

I think we reached peak incompetence with our corner taking.

The players don't look like they think they can score from corners. It looks half-hearted. A couple of short corners were even slightly embarrassing today. Our long corners are pointless.

I'm praying one of our new signings can actually take a corner.

 

[SwissBlade]

I think we reached peak incompetence with our corner taking.

The players don't look like they think they can score from corners. It looks half-hearted. A couple of short corners were even slightly embarrassing today. Our long corners are pointless.

I'm praying one of our new signings can actually take a corner.

Glad you started a thread as I was going to do the same.

Awful, awful corners. Back to the drawing board

 

[Caseh]

Our set pieces have been pretty shocking for a while. I think it's a big reason we can't get results also - Teams can safely foul us, knowing the delivery into the box will be rubbish.

 

[Booker4]

I think we reached peak incompetence with our corner taking.

The players don't look like they think they can score from corners. It looks half-hearted. A couple of short corners were even slightly embarrassing today. Our long corners are pointless.

I'm praying one of our new signings can actually take a corner.

They're not great but I don't see too many teams with better either. It is an art corner taking, some managers spend more time on them than anything else! I believe Evans takes decent corners.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

Our set-up in the box always baffles me. We put nearly everyone in an herd about 15 yards from goal, making it virtually impossible to have someone make a run onto the flight of the ball because there's about 10 players having a group cuddle. Does my head in.

 

[1973Blade]

I miss having a player who can take a long throw as well, was worried every throw in Wednesday had.

 

[nowtfancy]

The one that put fleck in looked good, other than that not much threat.

Ever since I read that essay on how good we were at set pieces we've looked poor from them!

 

[robbiez666]

Our set-up in the box always baffles me. We put nearly everyone in an herd about 15 yards from goal, making it virtually impossible to have someone make a run onto the flight of the ball because there's about 10 players having a group cuddle. Does my head in.

My memory might be failing me, but when JoC and EEL were scoring from corners last season weren't they late runs into the box?

 

[A Storm of Blades]

My memory might be failing me, but when JoC and EEL were scoring from corners last season weren't they late runs into the box?

Definitely right but my point is it's now everyone huddled together, bringing their collective markers into a mass love-in I could throw a duvet over. It makes stopping us getting onto the ball easy. Have some players hanging back for a run, absolutely but we need to have smarter starting positions for everyone else. The stats show our corners are shite.

 

[Digger]

I think its all about the delivery. We tend to float them in , put a bit of pace and inswing on it . Much more difficult to defend against.

 

[Geordie Blade]

Sky kept going on about how inventive our set pieces were. I thought they must have been watching a different game. The short one to Fleck in the second half (when he got ahead of Wallace) was good but otherwise it was just a case of losing possession.

In the first half, I can’t understand why we’d choose Basham to be the one to connect with a first shot from a low ‘passed’ corner. Surely Fleck, Duffy, Clarke or Lundstram would be much better options.

I like O’Connell a lot, but he doesn’t seem to jump when we’re attacking set pieces. He ought to be much more of a handful.

 

[Ron_Justice]

Gagey's got a point... 3 goals from 180 corners... Think they need looking at.

 

[bornablade]

Our style of play with attacking wing backs and rampaging centre halves should always result in a number of corners if they get to the bye line to cross.

A huge amount of time should be spent during the week taking advantage of this.

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

Need someone on the back stick

 

[wavy-blade]

I think we reached peak incompetence with our corner taking.

The players don't look like they think they can score from corners. It looks half-hearted. A couple of short corners were even slightly embarrassing today. Our long corners are pointless.

I'm praying one of our new signings can actually take a corner.

No body can take a corner like the GREAT Alan Woodward

 

[GodricBlade]

Our set pieces have been pretty shocking for a while. I think it's a big reason we can't get results also - Teams can safely foul us, knowing the delivery into the box will be rubbish.

Great summary - it’s the whole set-piece thing.
The odd one goes nicely & surprises everyone with a Training ground move but we don’t do enough from the volume we get in terms of goals.
If we can turn that up we’ll be much better off - imagine what just 6 (number plucked out of thin air) extra goals this season would have done for us. Even 4!

We need to turn these opportunities created to our advantage.

 

[robbiez666]

Not sure we have particular problems from free kicks. Some are quite good. It's just the corners. We hardly ever even get a head on one. No one attacks the ball. Last season JoC, Bash and EEL all attacked the ball. Now they play grapple. Need to start runs from outside the box and stop pissing around as a 'pack'.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

I appreciate that my views on football are anchored in the 90's, and would cause apoplexy for the purists on here, but what surprised me last night was we didn't rain hell fire & damnation on young mr. wildsmith for the first 15 mins. Shock & awe stuff. Test the fibre of his fabric, get him under his own cross bar, the flood lights in his eyes, being challenged by the big lads. Every corner or free kick we had went short. Very short. What should have been a traumatic experience for him, was a relative stroll in the park.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

I appreciate that my views on football are anchored in the 90's, and would cause apoplexy for the purists on here, but what surprised me last night was we didn't rain hell fire & damnation on young mr. wildsmith for the first 15 mins. Shock & awe stuff. Test the fibre of his fabric, get him under his own cross bar, the flood lights in his eyes, being challenged by the big lads. Every corner or free kick we had went short. Very short. What should have been a traumatic experience for him, was a relative stroll in the park.

I agree. It sings to an identity crisis in general within the English game at the moment. Just look at our national team, we're playing dress-up trying to imitate a continental style we're no good at. Hoof is rightly criticised but we've thrown the baby out with the bath water and lost a celebration of physicality that used to be a dangerous USP. Blades fell into this trap last night, preferring ponderous passing across midfield, rather than deploying exactly the tactics you describe. Equally does my head in when England do the same. We're an island culture with shit weather, we play the game at 100 miles an hour from being kids, learning to trap a ball equally on cracked concrete or a mud bog. It saddens me to see a skillful version of that mindset (NOT hoof) disappear.