[Albion] Corners. Attacking and defending

blue-shifted · Jul 26, 2020

Worth it's own thread, (well I think so)

Attacking. Whoever is taking them, we're not looking remotely threatening even with some big fellas in the middle. For all the talk of GP's tactical flexibility, we've continued with that love train thing for months despite getting no joy whatsoever from it. I think I might be right in saying, we've taken two short corners since the start of lockdown and scored from both of them. Should we just not cross, like the tika taka Spain sides? Who should be taking the corners?

Defending. We look vulnerable. Again, we're not lacking height, we just can't cope with movement. We were lucky to get away with Rodriguez and a few others today and Carroll's chance the other night. Salah's goal decided the Liverpool game. Do we need to get a specialist set piece coach in? Do we need to change tactics? Put players on the posts? Is this an argument to keep and play Duffy?

Bodian · Jul 26, 2020

Very many years ago when I first took my wife to some matches, she asked 'why do you all get excited and start chanting 'seagulls' when you get a corner - nothing ever happens from them?'.

I've never really been able to provide a decent answer.

blue-shifted · Jul 26, 2020

Bodian said:
Very many years ago when I first took my wife to some matches, she asked 'why do you all get excited and start chanting 'seagulls' when you get a corner - nothing ever happens from them?'.

I've never really been able to provide a decent answer.

Guessing this was well before Watto, unerringly sticking it on Zamora's head every week.

BN41Albion · Jul 26, 2020

That love train routine makes me laugh every time I see them lining up for it. They all split, ball gets headed away without one of ours anywhere near it. Every time :lol:

HP Seagull · Jul 26, 2020

Our delivery today was terrible - it was like watching a pre-match warm-up routine for Pope, with floated crosses for him to catch on the six yard line.

Not sure what’s happened to our threat from the first half of the season, when a silly percentage of our goals were scored from set pieces.

HalfaSeatOn · Jul 26, 2020

Don't know if it's the case in football generally but feels corners don't produce the goals they used to. Ripe for some innovation.

macbeth · Jul 26, 2020

I remember being told (by someone whom I can't remember) that defending set pieces were one of potter's biggest frailties at Swansea. maybe that'll be something they work on, but it has looked a bit of an achilles heel at times this season. that said, we were up against the set piece masters today, if anyone was going to cause us problems from corners it would be them, so I'm not too worried about how weak we looked today, that is a key element of burnley's game plan and we still won.

with regards to attacking, I agree. few things I'd like to point out, firstly, for such a big bloke, dan burn never seems to get anywhere near corners. secondly, the delivery from mac allister was disappointing tosay. everything seemed to land right in pope's gloves. thirdly, I cannot remember one single goal we've scored from this 'love train' thing that england do (though there is surely at least one)
on the other hand, the short corner routines have worked very well for us since the restart at catching out sleeping defences (arsenal), but overall we haven't had much joy at all from corners. we've got more than enough capable set piece takers, so it is surely something that's going on in the box rather than the delivery to blame (though as I said I thought it was poor today). seem to remember we went quite a while without scoring from a corner under CH as well, so maybe attacking heading ability is something we're missing in the squad.

BN9 BHA · Jul 26, 2020

Work needs to be done on the training ground on corners, in recent matches I'm sure most of our corners have been very poor.
In the second half today at lest 2 were easily gathered by the Burnley keeper.

portslade seagull · Jul 26, 2020

We need extra homework on our corners. They have been pretty poor this season. Just to get past the 1st man would be great and even better if Burn at 6ft 7 actually gets his head to one

Algernon · Jul 26, 2020

Two arms raised into the air by the corner taker = Watch me place this on the first defender's head.

amexer · Jul 26, 2020

Considering size of our defenders we create so little. Go back a year nearly every corner went to far post and to be fair Duffy won most. We have conceded far too many. Including Van Dyke 2. One where he out jumped defender and other one Webster didnt jump with him. Think Salahs only header was against us. Burnley today won nearly every header at corners. Couldnt understand why one of our big defenders isnt at far post when defending

Coach_Carter_92 · Jul 26, 2020

Last time we were threatening at corners was when Hyypia was in charge. I seem to remember Dunk scored quite a few that season

el punal · Jul 26, 2020

HalfaSeatOn said:
Don't know if it's the case in football generally but feels corners don't produce the goals they used to. Ripe for some innovation.

Wish we could bring back Alex Dawson - sod the love train routine Alex would make sure the goalie was impaled on the buffers.

vagabond · Jul 26, 2020

Here’s a question. When’s the last time we took a good corner?

Seems a travesty we have Burn, Dunk, Webster, and Murray sometimes all waiting for a good delivery that never arrives.

maltaseagull · Jul 27, 2020

Algernon said:
Two arms raised into the air by the corner taker = Watch me place this on the first defender's head.

And the variant:
One arm raised into the air by the corner taker = Watch me place this in the goalies hands..

Sheebo · Jul 27, 2020

I totally agree OP. Something to work on. I notice they’d changed the line of 4 into 2 lines of 2 yesterday - but irrelevant when every corner went down the keepers’ throat!

Swansman · Jul 27, 2020

Corners are one of those situations in football where people expect a lot, but in reality only about one in 30 i corners result in a goal. I think we got close to that this season (will have a closer look some day) - meaning that sure, there is room for improvement but it really isnt that bad especially considering that the team is pretty small except for the big three (Webster, Dunk, Burn).

Defensively it is unfortunately one of those situations in the game where it would be nice to have a tall keeper as it makes a lot of difference.

Not too impressed with Macallisters delivery on set pieces yet, but Gross & Mooy are both decent at it.

elwheelio · Jul 27, 2020

macbeth said:
I remember being told (by someone whom I can't remember) that defending set pieces were one of potter's biggest frailties at Swansea. maybe that'll be something they work on, but it has looked a bit of an achilles heel at times this season. that said, we were up against the set piece masters today, if anyone was going to cause us problems from corners it would be them, so I'm not too worried about how weak we looked today, that is a key element of burnley's game plan and we still won.

with regards to attacking, I agree. few things I'd like to point out, firstly, for such a big bloke, dan burn never seems to get anywhere near corners. secondly, the delivery from mac allister was disappointing tosay. everything seemed to land right in pope's gloves. thirdly, I cannot remember one single goal we've scored from this 'love train' thing that england do (though there is surely at least one)
on the other hand, the short corner routines have worked very well for us since the restart at catching out sleeping defences (arsenal), but overall we haven't had much joy at all from corners. we've got more than enough capable set piece takers, so it is surely something that's going on in the box rather than the delivery to blame (though as I said I thought it was poor today). seem to remember we went quite a while without scoring from a corner under CH as well, so maybe attacking heading ability is something we're missing in the squad.

Yes, Andy Naylor wrote about Swansea conceding more goals from corners last year than any other team. I must say, we do seem particularly vulnerable on corners these days. It might be the lack of Duffy in the air but something is definitely not quite right. At the other end of the pitch it's not happening, which is a shame with the giants we've got in the side.

blue-shifted · Jul 27, 2020

Defending corners. Other teams are going to target this area next season.

Maty doesn't claim them, (no criticism, it's not his game) and our centre backs aren't winning enough headers, not because they're not tall enough, but because they aren't dealing with movement. I think there is justification for men on the posts. I know this is so 2000's, but we've got 3 or 4 in the team, who are never going to win a header anyway.

Assuming yesterday's line up, I'd set up ...

Lamptey front post, MacAllister back
Bissouma near corner of the 6 yard box, guarding against a run across him and ready to race out (with Lamptey) to defend any short corner
Dunk, Webby, Burn, Stephens, Maupay, March, man marking their main threats (Dunky marking their biggest threat, March their 6th biggest)
Connolly on the edge of the box ready to chase down any clearance

And yes, yes, sometimes you'll get a near post flick which will fly over Lamptey's head, but for example, he would have stopped Salah's header. I just think he's more likely to stop a goal on the line than he is to outleap someone. MacAllister at the back post would have kept out Rodriguez header yesterday had it been allowed.

albionalex · Sep 26, 2020

Very relevant today.

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