Shooting from free kicks

[Adam]

The more ive watched us, or any other team for that matter, the more i can't understand why teams shoot from free kicks that are further than 22/23 yards out.

Obviously its a great opportunity to get a strike in on goal, but id love to know the percentage of free kick shots that result in goals-if its anything more than 2 or 3% then id be extremely suprised. For a team like ours, who are pretty good at keeping the ball in tight areas, surely we would be better off in having a full back making a late run out wide and receiving a pass from the taker in order to get round the back of the opposition?

Yesterday was a classic example-we had a free kick about 30 yards out, all of Villa's players were extremely narrow, and if we'd had a bit of courage, we could have got Bale in round the back without too much trouble; as it turned out, we shot and, predictably, it hit the wall and the chance was gone-even Villa had two within 30 yards yesterday and instrad of trying to put a move together, they completely wasted to great chances by trying something that statistically is like backing the 50/1 horse at the Gold Cup.

I know that shooting from free kicks is the 'done thing', and if you've got an absolute specialist on them then fine, maybe its worth having a crack-with our players though, they havent converted anywhere near enough in their careers to be defined as free kick specialists.

Games like NFL have their faults, but i guarantee that with their focus on statistics, any play that yielded success only once in every thirty or forty attempts would be pulled from the playbook immediately-its simply a waste of all the effort its taken to get the team to that position.

 

[Raxscallion]

I've been wondering this since I was about 12. I'd love to see teams work more set plays rather than just blasting it at the wall / over the bar / toward the goalie.

 

[Adam]

The thing is, we will inevitably score one at some point, and people will no doubt say they are always worth shooting from, but it just seems like a waste of good territory, and i reckon they will slowly be phased out in the future as young managers brought up on technology such as ProZone start coming into the game.

 

[gibbs131]

We have such good attackers in the air. We really should do a Bolton and be predictable and whip the ball in. Big Sam used to say "you know what you are going to do, good luck trying to stop us" when it came to set pieces.

 

[Raxscallion]

We have such good attackers in the air. We really should do a Bolton and be predictable and whip the ball in. Big Sam used to say "you know what you are going to do, good luck trying to stop us" when it came to set pieces.

We do? Our best ones are CBs that I can see. Crouch isn't that hot in the air, and the other attacking players are midgets.

 

[TallBlokePH]

We do? Our best ones are CBs that I can see. Crouch isn't that hot in the air, and the other attacking players are midgets.

Spot on.

 

[jurgen]

But even so, none of our CBs are exactly renowned for being lethal in the box. We don't have any defenders who get many goals from set pieces and aren't really a threat like you expect say Terry, Vermaelen, Gallas or Vidic to be....

Hudd and Corluka are both tall but neither seem to use their size as an aerial threat either. Daws has looked most likely to be the man, because if you could make one tiny point about King, he's never quite managed to stamp himself as an offensive force as much as some more uncultured defenders have.

 

[simyid]

i think the first point is not very clever because you do that kind of free kick, playing it to the full back, once fine. but after that the opposition will be weary of it so the full backs will be marked then u can't play it again

 

[Adam]

i think the first point is not very clever because you do that kind of free kick, playing it to the full back, once fine. but after that the opposition will be weary of it so the full backs will be marked then u can't play it again

Ok, but then you can mix it up, eg man coming off the side of the wall, man coming from deep to play a one two, there are quite a few options-if you show the other team that you have variety in your locker, then eventually they will slip up as they wont know which option to defend

 

[Mr-T]

When the likes of Bentley and Bale are in the side surely they should have a pop if the chance arises no?

 

[Adam]

When the likes of Bentley and Bale are in the side surely they should have a pop if the chance arises no?

Thats exactly what im trying to argue against-i think its too easy to say 'well why dont they have a pop,' and if you look at the stats, they've got barely two between them in the 4 years they've cumulatively been playing for the club for-in the past few games, we've wasted loads of opportunites by shooting from free-kicks that i think could have been used better by starting a move.

I must stress that if its literally just outside the box then yeah, smash it around the wall to the keeper's side as they usually move across and leave half the goal open, but from anything further than 22/23 yards out, i dont think the percentages lend themselves to be favourable to having a shot

 

[AnotherSpursFan]

Bentley will always go for goal in a freekick situation no matter the range. He's that predictable because he thinks he is good and it's frustrating to see most of his attempts orbit into space. His Ego is unbearable.

 

[TrueYid]

Bentley will always go for goal in a freekick situation no matter the range. He's that predictable because he thinks he is good and it's frustrating to see most of his attempts orbit into space. His Ego is unbearable.

Bentley has scored twice from free kicks this season, and he has only played a handfull of games. (You can say it was a deflection or rebound whatnot, but fact is two of his free kicks have resulted in goals)

Regarding the disctance of the free kick, any deadball specialis will tell you, it is far easier to score from 30 yeards out then 22. (taking into account the distance to curl, dip and drop etc...)

 

[Teofilo-Stevenson]

i think the first point is not very clever because you do that kind of free kick, playing it to the full back, once fine. but after that the opposition will be weary of it so the full backs will be marked then u can't play it again

Nope, its you thats missing the point - if it worked once they'd then have to compromise defensive cover in the middle to cover the danger out wide.

Personally I've never understood why teams don't use a little more variation & nouse when taking free kicks - I've always thought a ball dinked over the top of the wall for a player running in behind from deep would be a real killer play. Ball dropped a couple of meters over the wall for a player, on the run, to volley home - why not?

 

[WexfordTownSpur]

Thats exactly what im trying to argue against-i think its too easy to say 'well why dont they have a pop,' and if you look at the stats, they've got barely two between them in the 4 years they've cumulatively been playing for the club for-in the past few games, we've wasted loads of opportunites by shooting from free-kicks that i think could have been used better by starting a move.

I must stress that if its literally just outside the box then yeah, smash it around the wall to the keeper's side as they usually move across and leave half the goal open, but from anything further than 22/23 yards out, i dont think the percentages lend themselves to be favourable to having a shot

I think bentley and Bale are better at "delivering" the ball from free kicks than shooting - I see why player like Ronaldo, Drogba, Gerrard etc, take long shots, they can hit um, and they score - are one threat in that mould is Tom Huddleston, and for some reason, he just can't seem to hit the target, he shows great skill and technique, but he fails so may times to hit the target it is untrue.

So yes, for me, we need to get Bentley and Bale on the ball, whip it in and get the likes of Bassong, King, Dawson, Crouch, Corluka on the ball - this is what we need to be working on in training fro free kicks!

 

[mike_l]

When the likes of Bentley and Bale are in the side surely they should have a pop if the chance arises no?

Bale's freekicks in recent times have been very disappointing, seems to be unable to clear the wall in the last few games.

 

[mike_l]

Bentley will always go for goal in a freekick situation no matter the range. He's that predictable because he thinks he is good and it's frustrating to see most of his attempts orbit into space. His Ego is unbearable.

Though he has scored 2 in a limited number of games this season, which is a pretty good success rate.

 

[mil1lion]

I dont see much point in Bentley, Bale or Kranjcar taking long distance free-kicks. They're better with the ball 20-25 yards out. I'd like to see Huddlestone take the longer ones on. Hit it low and hard past the wall, and get a couple of players run across the box, either get a deflection, or if it goes through to the keeper it might well rebound out. Hit them like that and it could go anywhere. There's no reason why the Hudd can't keep it down from a dead ball position. And if he hits the target, the keeper will probably find it too hard to handle.