[Albion] Defending Corners

HAILSHAM SEAGULL · Dec 2, 2021

We seem to have problems defending corners and Big Bob looks quite vulnerable to the in-swinger like last night.
Zonal defending always seems to create problems and having Sarmiento in front of the near post and Soucek between him and Sanchez is asking for trouble.
Soucek is 4 inches taller than Sarmiento and with a good delivery like Fornals did last night, Bob is always going to be floundering.
Not criticising Big Bob, when the ball is deeper in the 6yd box, he is much more commanding.
I would imagine Ward Prowse is going to plonk every corner on Saturday on a postage stamp, close to the goal with a cluster of players in Bob's way.
He is a big enough lump, needs to own his area.

Stat Brother · Dec 2, 2021

Maupay (?) was lining up against Zouma and I thought:

'oh yeah I forgot we are shite at corners'.

RandyWanger · Dec 2, 2021

We're shit at defending them because we're shit at taking them... How can they train against them when no-one can put in consistently decent corners in the box during training?

Johnny RoastBeef · Dec 2, 2021

HAILSHAM SEAGULL said:
We seem to have problems defending corners and Big Bob looks quite vulnerable to the in-swinger like last night.
Zonal defending always seems to create problems and having Sarmiento in front of the near post and Soucek between him and Sanchez is asking for trouble.
Soucek is 4 inches taller than Sarmiento and with a good delivery like Fornals did last night, Bob is always going to be floundering.
Not criticising Big Bob, when the ball is deeper in the 6yd box, he is much more commanding.
I would imagine Ward Prowse is going to plonk every corner on Saturday on a postage stamp, close to the goal with a cluster of players in Bob's way.
He is a big enough lump, needs to own his area.

I think this is more due to the quality of West Ham's corners than any major floor in Bob's ability. Alisson Becker was caught out in exactly the same way, twice.

Bold Seagull · Dec 2, 2021

Stat Brother said:
Maupay (?) was lining up against Zouma and I thought:

'oh yeah I forgot we are shite at corners'.

They are a team from the Land of the Giants though. Craig Dawson, a relative short arse for them at 6' 2". Who was Lamptey picking up when he came on? :lolol:

Nobby Cybergoat · Dec 2, 2021

Whilst it was sort of funny to see Lamptey marking Zouma last night, in a scrappy doo, let me at em sort of way .... Zouma did get his head on it and it did make me think, "how much thought are we actually putting into this?"

We've conceded one. Another marginally ruled out and now we're marking their biggest player with our smallest.

We need to totally review the way we defend corners

Nobby Cybergoat · Dec 2, 2021

Something i've surprised we've never tried is Burn (who I would recall) as the front clearing defender. No marking responsibility, just stand him a yard off the front post.

Just from a psychological point of view, the taker then knows his options are drastically reduced. He's got to go over Burn. I bet a lot of the time, it would go over everyone

amexer · Dec 2, 2021

, Soucek and Zouma biggest danger at corners dont understand why our tallest players are not told it is there job to make sure they dont get the ball.

Bold Seagull · Dec 2, 2021

RandyWanger said:
We're shit at defending them because we're shit at taking them... How can they train against them when no-one can put in consistently decent corners in the box during training?

I'm racking my brains here, but have we just conceded 2 from corners, last night and Tarkowski on the opening day? Duffy scored against Watford for our only corner goal?

Thought our corners were decent last night, 2 of them Dunk will be very disappointed not to have scored, the second was a free header at a lovely height and pace to score from.

Lifelong Supporter · Dec 2, 2021

Sometimes one has to accept that it is the quality of the delivery more than the defensive shape. The pundits of course can micro analyse what are split second actions, to sound knowledgeable and make the players significantly at fault. Of course the keeper 'could do better' but one can say that for most players, most of the time.

Icy Gull · Dec 2, 2021

RandyWanger said:
We're shit at defending them because we're shit at taking them... How can they train against them when no-one can put in consistently decent corners in the box during training?

That is actually a very good point :lolol:

Nobby Cybergoat · Dec 2, 2021

amexer said:
, Soucek and Zouma biggest danger at corners dont understand why our tallest players are not told it is there job to make sure they dont get the ball.

So we get our best headers of the ball and get them to mark their best headers of the ball? Interesting thought.

amexer · Dec 2, 2021

For you stats people. Who in PL has let in most goals from corners. While you at it. Who has scored most goals

Swansman · Dec 2, 2021

4 conceded goals (which is the league average so far) on set pieces so far this season is good considering Brighton got one of the shortest teams in the league.

Nobby Cybergoat said:
Whilst it was sort of funny to see Lamptey marking Zouma last night, in a scrappy doo, let me at em sort of way .... Zouma did get his head on it and it did make me think, "how much thought are we actually putting into this?"

We've conceded one. Another marginally ruled out and now we're marking their biggest player with our smallest.

We need to totally review the way we defend corners

The short players are not marking opponents in the sense that they are expected to win headers but to block the runways of larger players. Brighton, like most professional football teams, play zonal marking at corners.

Nobby Cybergoat said:
Something i've surprised we've never tried is Burn (who I would recall) as the front clearing defender. No marking responsibility, just stand him a yard off the front post.

Just from a psychological point of view, the taker then knows his options are drastically reduced. He's got to go over Burn. I bet a lot of the time, it would go over everyone

You could do that and maybe prevent a couple of goals but you'd also maybe let in a couple of goals since Rob Sanchez will have limited vision of where the ball is going.

Arthur · Dec 2, 2021

Was going to start a similar thread.

Was screaming at the telly in the first half with Maupay marking Soucek after he had already scored. Then was even dafter in the second half with Lamptey marking Zouma!!

Don't get that one Graham!?!?

Swansman · Dec 2, 2021

Arthur said:
Was going to start a similar thread.

Was screaming at the telly in the first half with Maupay marking Soucek after he had already scored. Then was even dafter in the second half with Lamptey marking Zouma!!

Don't get that one Graham!?!?

They are not marking the players (Brighton play zonal marking), they are blocking their runs.

seagully · Dec 2, 2021

One thing that baffled me a bit was Moder taking corners- he's a big unit, I'd rather he was in the box attacking them

Nobby Cybergoat · Dec 2, 2021

Swansman said:
4 conceded goals (which is the league average so far) on set pieces so far this season is good considering Brighton got one of the shortest teams in the league.

The short players are not marking opponents in the sense that they are expected to win headers but to block the runways of larger players. Brighton, like most professional football teams, play zonal marking at corners.

You could do that and maybe prevent a couple of goals but you'd also maybe let in a couple of goals since Rob Sanchez will have limited vision of where the ball is going.

But is that plan really working? Had Cuccerella not dropped onto the line, or 6 inches over it would have hit his arm, they'd have won the game because of that

Our corner defending is not convincing. We could very easily have conceded 3 from corners last night.

And we're not a short side. Loads of heft at the back, Moder, Biss are 6 foot+ . Equally Sanchez. The problem is the set up, the American football style blockers aren't really blocking (and so are out of the game) and the defenders are standing passively against runners attacking the ball.

And fair comment that we've not conceded more than average from them, but also factor in that against Leicester two were ruled out which were probably right, but don't usually get ruled out.

And that doesn't get to where I think our biggest are of improvement should be. Not giving them away in the first place. Loads are soft. Crosses going nowhere with a leg dangled at them in a half challenge sort of way. For a team who control a lot of territory and possession, we ship a load of corners.

We've got serious work to do. We're playing one of the best takers in the league on Saturday. Soton scored from a corner again last night.

Swansman · Dec 2, 2021

Nobby Cybergoat said:
But is that plan really working? Had Cuccerella not dropped onto the line, or 6 inches over it would have hit his arm, they'd have won the game because of that

Our corner defending is not convincing. We could very easily have conceded 3 from corners last night.

And we're not a short side. Loads of heft at the back, Moder, Biss are 6 foot+ . Equally Sanchez. The problem is the set up, the American football style blockers aren't really blocking (and so are out of the game) and the defenders are standing passively against runners attacking the ball.

And fair comment that we've not conceded more than average from them, but also factor in that against Leicester two were ruled out which were probably right, but don't usually get ruled out.

And that doesn't get to where I think our biggest are of improvement should be. Not giving them away in the first place. Loads are soft. Crosses going nowhere with a leg dangled at them in a half challenge sort of way. For a team who control a lot of territory and possession, we ship a load of corners.

We've got serious work to do. We're playing one of the best takers in the league on Saturday. Soton scored from a corner again last night.

Brighton is a short side - one of very few sides in the league that frequently line up with five players below 173 cm and as long as that is the case, opponents will sometimes create chances from set pieces.

I agree that a couple of corners here and there could and should be avoided but the defending is as good as it will get with the current team.

Taybha · Dec 2, 2021

Nobby Cybergoat said:
Something i've surprised we've never tried is Burn (who I would recall) as the front clearing defender. No marking responsibility, just stand him a yard off the front post.

Just from a psychological point of view, the taker then knows his options are drastically reduced. He's got to go over Burn. I bet a lot of the time, it would go over everyone

There's one thing wrong with this and I'll use Dan's words rather than my own

" Well I'm rubbish at heading the ball"

At 6ft 8inch this is quite unusual but I can't think of anytime he's been close to scoring with his bonce.

Burn should be a absolute nightmare to defend against from corners but he's not, for some reason he rarely gets a header in on goal, I like Burn as he brings so much more to the team than just his height but surely at some point he really has to start causing defenders problems.

He's pretty good at defending stuff along the ground but there's about 8 inches he's not putting into good use! (I know that feeling).

I reckon we'll see Burn again quite soon so who knows he may read this tell Potter and they'll work on it as it's probably not been mentioned to him before :lolol:

Whatever the solution I prefer the Dunk n Duffy partnership at defending so hopefully they will get it sorted because West Ham certainly pounced on a obvious weakness last night and we were fortunate to get away with the second non goal.

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[Albion] Defending Corners

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