Corners...

[danielneeds]

Just looking at the current issue of 442 magazine, and they have a feature on corners, and the OPTA stats from last season don't make good reading.

We conceded from 5.1% of the corners we faced last season, the worst in the league, the best was Norwich with just under 2%.

As for scoring, we were on 2.7%, not the worst, the same as Arsenal, way behind United on almost 4%.

With the the sort of players we have been signing, we seem to have one of the biggest and most physically imposing squads in years. We've desperately got to improve on our set piece performance. I'm sure AVB will be aware of this and will be applying similar methods that he used to stop the late conceding of goals last year.

 

[nferno]

Every time we concede a corner, I put my head in my hands feeling like it's a penalty that's how bad we are at them.

 

[ralvy]

Every time we concede a corner, I put my head in my hands feeling like it's a penalty that's how bad we are at them.

lol! Me too. I also react that way any time one of our guys (usually Walker) gives a foul somewhere in the wings of our side of the pitch.

 

[yiddo_4eva]

It's one thing to have a physically imposing team but the delivery from corners last season was pretty awful so if that improves then I can see us being one of better teams at both defending and scoring from corners.

 

[Kingellesar]

Having Kaboul and Sandro back will hopefully mean we will improve at defending corners. I mean we should have the following in the box to defend:

Sandro, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Bale, Dembele, Paulinho with the full backs on the posts. A very physical side, hopefully it can get us goals too. I guess Soldado too but not sure what his aerial ability is like due to his height, all I know is his rating on Fifa for heading is good

 

[chrissivad]

Its also movement as well. So many times last year we saw our defending players just stand and watch an attacker make a run off them and get a free header...

 

[Ribble]

They were still better last season than the preceeding few though.

 

[Japhet]

Its also movement as well. So many times last year we saw our defending players just stand and watch an attacker make a run off them and get a free header...

It's called zonal marking!

 

[chrissivad]

It's called zonal marking!

well its been working well...
some players standing still, others tracking runners...

 

[davethebear]

Paulinho and Soldado should hopefully improve our attacking stats and hopefully Chadli has the ability to beat the first man should he take them

 

[fatpiranha]

I think this season we'll mostly be playing a high line pressing game. That should result in far fewer corners being conceded.

 

[Lufti]

Just looking at the current issue of 442 magazine, and they have a feature on corners, and the OPTA stats from last season don't make good reading.

We conceded from 5.1% of the corners we faced last season, the worst in the league, the best was Norwich with just under 2%.

As for scoring, we were on 2.7%, not the worst, the same as Arsenal, way behind United on almost 4%.

With the the sort of players we have been signing, we seem to have one of the biggest and most physically imposing squads in years. We've desperately got to improve on our set piece performance. I'm sure AVB will be aware of this and will be applying similar methods that he used to stop the late conceding of goals last year.

That's a good point actually:

If we were to field this:

Lloris 6"2
Walker 5"10
Kaboul 6"3
Vertonghen 6"2
Rose 5"8
Sandro 6"1/2
Paulinho 6"0
Dembele 6"1
Bale 6"1
Chadli 6"2
Soldado 5"10 1/2

Pretty good average squad height and they're all very physical. You can't really get the ball of Dembele and Chadli too easily, our full backs are both very well built even if not so tall, and Soldado is a physical presence in the box despite his height. As for Sandro and Kaboul, nothing even needs to be said. Stoke should be scared to come to the Lane.

 

[DubSpurs]

Im just amazed that Utd have the best scoring from corner ratio at only 4%. 4% sounds shocking!

 

[danielneeds]

Im just amazed that Utd have the best scoring from corner ratio at only 4%. 4% sounds shocking!

Think about it, they probably get around 8 corners a game, especially at Old Trafford. So if you say you are going to score 1 goal every three games from a corner, that's pretty good.

 

[vegassd]

Physicality is nothing without concentration and awareness. There were times last season where we seemed to be doing a semi-zonal system and it left our lads completely flat-footed. All it took was a diagonal run from the centre of the box toward the front post and we just couldn't defend it.

I'm quite a fan of not putting guys on the posts because it gives us more potential to break, but that can only really be used if our primary defenders are doing their jobs properly.

 

[DubSpurs]

Think about it, they probably get around 8 corners a game, especially at Old Trafford. So if you say you are going to score 1 goal every three games from a corner, that's pretty good.

Suppose, just when you say it as for every 100 corners they get, they only score from 4, its sounds alot worse.

Just thought it would be higher is all

 

[al_pacino]

Suppose, just when you say it as for every 100 corners they get, they only score from 4, its sounds alot worse.

Just thought it would be higher is all

They can only play us twice a season.

 

[Veuve Clicquot]

Sadly , the issue of corners (and set pieces) needs to be brought up again. I remember at the end of last season conceding several soft goals to corners, examples being against Wigan away , Everton home and Chelsea away, all matches which we ended up drawing and thereby dropping 6 points which would have seen us comfortably in the champion league positions. I was therefore hoping that it was an area that AVB would work on and improve this season. From what I have seen so far though, I can see no improvement aswe continue to look vulnerable whenever the opposition have a corner or set piece and, as someone commented above, it's heart in mouth time as I always expect to concede from them. It cost us big time yesterday as the 1st goal was always going to be important as we had to chase the game after that and west ham grew in confidence and hit us on the break.
Same with the chelsea match, they dominated the 2nd half but only managed to score through a soft set piece.
At the other end we often have 10 corners or more per game and look completely ineffective from them, there's no clever runs or movement, the players just seem to expect the ball to land on their head. It's the same lack of imagination from set pieces. I noticed this weekend that Man city had a pre-planned free-kick routine which had clearly been practised on the training ground caught everton completely and were unlucky to score from. And of course west ham nearly scored from what looked like a pre-rehearsed free kick yesterday. Why do we never see Spurs doing anything innovative like this?
If we don't sort out these issues then we are never going to progress because when you are giving the opposition a 1 goal start then you have to score at least 2 goals to win the match, something we have only done once this season.
Does AVB think we are above practising set pieces? For a supposedly intelligent and meticulous manager it seems to be a major blind spot.