It has to be said, corner kicks are the most overrated set piece in the game. If you look at the stats at the game in general, they're hardly worth having. I remember "When Saturday Comes" ran a piece on this about a year ago.
I think they need to amend the rule so that you can't be offside from a corner OR from the passage of play immediately following the corner. Or maybe bring it closer in.
I have to disagree Simster, while I agree that they are a bit rubbish on the goalscoring front, they do get the ball knocked 'in the mixer' and even when they're headed away they can see a shot from the edge of the box or maybe a good pass to the other wing.
Also, I reckon they are a good indicator of which team is on top. The side that picks up the second ball from a corner, at either end, tends to be the ream playing better and wanting it more. See last season, we hardly ever won the second ball on the edge of the box when we were struggling at the start.
But as things stand, I'd say that if you had a player who could throw the ball long, it is preferable to gain in throw in maybe 10 yards up the pitch than to have the corner.
Simple geometry suggest that from a corner, the defence only has a 90 degree arc to defend. With a throw, the attacking team has more options, especially as you can't be offside from a throw-in.
Now if you remove the offside law from the passage of play following a corner, it suddenly gets more interesting, since the attacking team can then play the ball short and not worry about offside while they have the ball in that phase of play.
We aren't helped by the fact that we use the wrong sided foot if you get what I mean. ie we use a right footed player from the right so the ball only bends away from the goal. Corners are far more dangerous when they are whipped in towards the goal.