[Albion] Analysis: Here's why Brighton and Hove Albion might play so many short corners

[Hugo Rune]

This. Considering the fact we have 6 points from 8 games, our short corner routine hasn't yielded any success either it would seem

I think what's frustrating is that we don't seem to mix it up. As the article said, all our corners v Burnley were taken short.

Whilst I agree that we should be mixing it up a bit, Groß only really had Webster to hit with a corner into the box. Pope, Mee & Tarkowski were winning everything. Burn is surprisingly poor at headed shots from corners and it’s clearly not a strength of Veltman or White. I’m sure we’ll be mixing it up against Villa with Dunk back.

 

[Swansman]

It does lead into the obvious question:-

'why still send all the big lads up from the back?'


I'll look again but isn't GPotts short corner routine 'play it short then crossing in?'
So possession is retained for all of 5 secs and everybody is still out of position.

Hardly a reinvention, more tweaked in order to be slightly less productive.

Sometimes. Play it short, create movement in the box and improve the angle of the cross. And sometimes not, play it short and then down the middle to Bissouma (last season Stephens) and either retain the ball or shoot (rarely leads to goal as of yet but also rarely leads to counters). Not that either has been working out particularly well and there is obviously room for improvement.

This and this.

If we're not going to stick it in the mixer what is the point with playing with four big lads at the back. Furthermore, if we are going to maintain possession then it's our shortest, quickest, most effective attacking player who we leave back to defend most of the time, presumably to deal with a counter. Not to mention that "love train" thing that England also used to do to break man to man coverage.

This is how it's going this season. Brighton win a corner. My son says "we'll take it short" and starts looking at Insta posts on his phone. We take it short, leaving all our central defenders ahead of the ball, tit about and lose it anyway. Everyone jogs back to the centre circle. My son looks up from his phone.

Predictable AF.

Except that early this season you could put it in and if it slightly brushed the arm of a defender as they were jumping you got a penalty. Let's ask Maupay how that went for us.

While I definitely agree that the corners could be used better, there is two things to point out here: first, the the scenario you describe does not happen at every corner (though it might feel like it).

The other thing, that honestly surprised me a bit... "If we're not going to stick it in the mixer what is the point with playing with four big lads at the back".. Well, I can assure you that playing Burn, Webster, Dunk, White and/or Veltman is not about "putting it in the mixer". Even thinking so tells quite a story about how overrated corners are. Managers do not choose their lineups based on corners. No, the reason why these guys are playing is because they are better defenders and footballers than Bernardo (disputed... I guess..), Dendoncker, Tanimowo and the other options.

 

[Seasidesage]

If we are going to play short corners which is fine, why commit anyone to the box? Surely we'd have far more chance of creating an overload by having all of our players outside of the box offering passing and potentially shooting options? It would also confuse the hell out of opposition defences and force them to come out too eventually...

What we do at the minute is the worst of both worlds? We limit our passing options from the corner while weakening our defensive cover who are waiting in vain for a cross that never comes? Players aligned in an arc from the corner is the way forward

 

[big nuts]

Does the introduction of VAR make it more profitable to keep the ball in the box? With the inconsistencies of decisions, it only takes a stray hand or a deflection onto hand to bring a potential handball penalty into the equation.

I get the stats, but the Everton game was poor game management and not thinking on your feet. You had a keeper, bereft of confidence and the obvious thing to do was to keep asking questions of him. The fact we didn’t was puzzling and frustrating.

 

[NooBHA]

All a bit over technical those stats. Instead of studying all of them.

Clubs should just watch videos of Tim Cahill's career and watch how often he managed to score goals from corners and the runs he made to get away from markers in order to score his goals. I would be willing to bet that about 50 % of the goals he scored were from corners.

 

[blue-shifted]

The article is misleading.

It is (I think) only referring to shots direct from a corner. It's not including situations where someone scores from a second (or third) ball or a penalty resulting from a corner. This is the majority of goals from corner.

In addition, it's clearly false (for the reason above) that you are just as likely to concede from a corner than score from one. I can remember, I think, three break away goals where a goal has been scored from the team defending a corner in the entire Amex era. Leicester got one last season. There must have been about 50 for the attacking team.

Putting it in the mixer is a valid tactic. (and i'm totally confident in Lamptey as the last man to snuff out any counter attacks). Pascal is a competent crosser at this level. However our central defenders are very poor at attacking headers, so I can see why we go short. Personally I think we should be trying to improve going long and short at corners.

One last point about Mourinho. Part of the crowd roaring on a corner is psychological. Making the opposing team feel that they up against it and the goal I coming at any moment.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

If we are going to play short corners which is fine, why commit anyone to the box? Surely we'd have far more chance of creating an overload by having all of our players outside of the box offering passing and potentially shooting options? It would also confuse the hell out of opposition defences and force them to come out too eventually...

What we do at the minute is the worst of both worlds? We limit our passing options from the corner while weakening our defensive cover who are waiting in vain for a cross that never comes? Players aligned in an arc from the corner is the way forward

You mean shooting is an option? Someone tell the players!

Personally I think that when we get a corner we might as well position the players as if we were defending a goal kick and then just kick it into the middle in case a defender has a brainstorm and handles. If not, then the keeper catches it and we have a chance to press when he throws it out short.

Then we can win the ball back, knock it sideways, dither a bit, and finally get it back to Maty Ryan. In a dance as old as time.

 

[keaton]

Does anyone have the stats for how many goals are scored/conceded by "passing the ball back from attacking positions to your own keeper so you can give the opposition the ball far closer to your own goal than if you'd just lumped it in the box"?

 

[matt]

Does anyone have the stats for how many goals are scored/conceded by "passing the ball back from attacking positions to your own keeper so you can give the opposition the ball far closer to your own goal than if you'd just lumped it in the box"?

I've often wondered the same thing. Especially when we have a throw-in midway in the opposition's half and we routinely send the ball back in the direction of our center-backs. There must be some statistical evidence that this works, surely.

Also. it would be interesting to see some stats on the number of passes completed before any goals we have scored in the last couple of seasons and how this compares to other PL teams.

 

[el punal]

Naive and simplistic as this sounds I just wonder if we would have more success by zapping the ball across at low level (along the ground or knee height). Awful for the goalie to try and claim and every chance that the ball could be deflected into the net as an OG or a fortuitous tap in from one of our players.

With thanks to the El Punal Bumper Book of Soccer Success. Now available from Amazon.

 

[Seasidesage]

You mean shooting is an option? Someone tell the players!

Personally I think that when we get a corner we might as well position the players as if we were defending a goal kick and then just kick it into the middle in case a defender has a brainstorm and handles. If not, then the keeper catches it and we have a chance to press when he throws it out short.

Then we can win the ball back, knock it sideways, dither a bit, and finally get it back to Maty Ryan. In a dance as old as time.

It's bold I'll give you that......

 

[Guinness Boy]

The article is misleading.

It is (I think) only referring to shots direct from a corner. It's not including situations where someone scores from a second (or third) ball or a penalty resulting from a corner. This is the majority of goals from corner.

In addition, it's clearly false (for the reason above) that you are just as likely to concede from a corner than score from one. I can remember, I think, three break away goals where a goal has been scored from the team defending a corner in the entire Amex era. Leicester got one last season. There must have been about 50 for the attacking team.

Putting it in the mixer is a valid tactic. (and i'm totally confident in Lamptey as the last man to snuff out any counter attacks). Pascal is a competent crosser at this level. However our central defenders are very poor at attacking headers, so I can see why we go short. Personally I think we should be trying to improve going long and short at corners.

One last point about Mourinho. Part of the crowd roaring on a corner is psychological. Making the opposing team feel that they up against it and the goal I coming at any moment.

This. Slabhead Maguire's goal against Ireland was a second ball in from a corner, headed straight in. Man United's winner against us came from a header direct from a corner that won a penalty. You're not going to score very oftern with the very first touch after it's taken - especially if it's taken short.

You mean shooting is an option? Someone tell the players!

Personally I think that when we get a corner we might as well position the players as if we were defending a goal kick and then just kick it into the middle in case a defender has a brainstorm and handles. If not, then the keeper catches it and we have a chance to press when he throws it out short.

Then we can win the ball back, knock it sideways, dither a bit, and finally get it back to Maty Ryan. In a dance as old as time.

It's almost like you've watched a bit of football in your time.

 

[nwgull]

Naive and simplistic as this sounds I just wonder if we would have more success by zapping the ball across at low level (along the ground or knee height). Awful for the goalie to try and claim and every chance that the ball could be deflected into the net as an OG or a fortuitous tap in from one of our players.

With thanks to the El Punal Bumper Book of Soccer Success. Now available from Amazon.

I remember us doing that a few times - enough that it looked intentional rather than a mis-kick - under Garcia. Lua Lua drilling it into the 6 yard box for us to score our second at home against QPR was one occasion I remember it working.

 

[keaton]

Someone needs to tell the Spanish that corners are pointless. Bloody tiki-taka merchants scored two of their first three goals from corners