Kalimantan Gull
Well-known member
Can't play that high a line and not expect a keeper to go for the ball in that location
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[Albion] Corners. Attacking and defending
- Thread starter blue-shifted
- Start date
Can't play that high a line and not expect a keeper to go for the ball in that location
No where near England level just now.
I’ll take another look but in real time it looked like 2 united players attacked the ball and 2 Albion players stood watching. It didn’t even occur to me that Steele should have come to catch or punch it.
Don Tmatter
Well-known member
Don’t think GP was too impressed neither
“I was really disappointed with the goal we conceded before half time, it was a cheap one and poor from our point of view”.
Stumpy Tim
Well-known member
Yep. Burn and Bernardo just didn't track their men. Really poor
Our set pievces have been very poor so far since lock down, nothing going forward and gifting goals in defence. Dunk is not currently a leader and clearly struggling against better teams whilst forging an understanding relationship with newer players in the squad. a lot of last ditch lunging and going to ground. I thought we'd moved on and stepped up a gear from that.
our heading ability, given the height of some of our players has been woeful.
our heading ability, given the height of some of our players has been woeful.
Burn and Bernardo held the line. White played McTominay onside.
Worried Man Blues
Well-known member
That Bielsa's shite
The team weren't too shabby with Duffy missing for most of last season.
Whatever GPott is doing elsewhere is definitely having an effect on deadball situations.
That said when Webster arrived he had his moments, the same can now be said of White.
I'm sure they'll work it out the manager ain't no Frank Lampard and Dunk not a substandard Zuoma.
I'm sure you're right and they'll work it out in the medium term, but in certain games I still believe they miss Duffy. It'll take a while for Dunk, Webster, White to become solid and it feels like some of the basics have gone missing during this transition: tracking the runners, marking the tall opponents at corners (Maguire vs Maupay),...something's gone squiffy at the mo.
Not Andy Naylor
Well-known member
It's a trade-off though, isn't it? Potter (and presumably TB too) obviously believes that we gain more from having three central defenders who can play the ball out than we lose from having Duffy dominating in the air. Just as we gain from having small, terrier-like forwards rather than Andy Carroll types. Players who can do it all cost more than we can afford.
Let's just hope that their judgement is correct in the long run. But a bit more training ground work on marking at set plays certainly wouldn't go amiss.
McTavish
Well-known member
- Nov 5, 2014
- 1,563
I read an interesting piece by a former pro about this - can't remember who or I would link - and he was saying that whilst this is one of the biggest moans of fans it is not as straightforward as it looks. He was saying that absolutely the best corner is hard, fast and misses the top of the first defender's head by a tiny margin so getting the ball six inches over the first defender was just as bad as hitting him.
He said that people who moan about hitting the first defender don't understand the tiny margins in professional football.
Yep.
I'm sure posters realise you don't just remove Duffy and carry on as normal.
In the cold light of day it was quite nice to have a bit of a reset last night, before Everton and then palace.
Naturally I'm still all in, but at least I've stepped away from steam rolling over these mid table teams.
I used to take corners and cross a lot, being a (slow) left winger . . . . I always aimed corners for the penalty spot, right in the mix, too far out for the keeper and there for our teams players to attack. the style of delivery is variable obviously. Not beating the man on the near post is inexcusable for a professional.
I've been saying this for a while. The 'A professional footballer should be able to beat the first man from a corner" cliche is bollocks. Anybody can beat the first man, I could do it every single time. But to beat the first man and get it into the danger area hard and fast and with swerve on it, and low enough for somebody to head it in, but not too high so it goes over everybody, is seriously hard. You're talking about a 6 inch difference, 30 yards away from where it is hit, at full power. It's the equivalent of putting the ball right into the top corner at pace from 30 yards out. To be able to do that consistently is an unbelievable skill, and very few players can do it properly, every time. Charlie Adam is probably the best we've had in the Premier League at it.