Corners - Do We Practice Them?

[King Kev]

According to the official site we had 17 corners yesterday and failed to score from any of them.

This is clearly not good enough. A corner gives the opportunity to get men forward and to delver the ball into the opposition penalty area, we should be making better use of these opportunities!

[dazby]

If Balo hadn't of got in the way Dzeko would have scored the easiest of goals.

gutting.

[thegoatfeeder]

According to the official site we had 17 corners yesterday and failed to score from any of them.

This is clearly not good enough. A corner gives the opportunity to get men forward and to delver the ball into the opposition penalty area, we should be making better use of these opportunities!

Absolutely woeful yesterday, and to my recollection we've always been rubbish on corners, but i'm sure I read recently that we are one of the better teams in the country when it comes to scoring from them, but you could have fooled me.

The problem yesterday wasn't always the delivery either, as I recall we had 2 more or less free headers and both were headed well over the bar.

[craigmcfc]

If Balo hadn't of got in the way Dzeko would have scored the easiest of goals.

gutting.

I was just about to type exactly that. Balo got under it and headed it into the top tier, Dzeko was behind and would have buried it. That one aside, I agree with Lee, our corners could definitely do with some work.

[craigmcfc]

According to the official site we had 17 corners yesterday and failed to score from any of them.

This is clearly not good enough. A corner gives the opportunity to get men forward and to delver the ball into the opposition penalty area, we should be making better use of these opportunities!

Absolutely woeful yesterday, and to my recollection we've always been rubbish on corners, but i'm sure I read recently that we are one of the better teams in the country when it comes to scoring from them, but you could have fooled me.

The problem yesterday wasn't always the delivery either, as I recall we had 2 more or less free headers and both were headed well over the bar.

Certainly a couple of weeks ago I saw a graphic that showed we were top of the pile when it came to scoring from set pieces. Quite comfortably so at the time too.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

First of all yes we do practice them. I see plenty of the short one two stuff involving Silva,plus the longer ones aiming to beat the first man plus the other one with movedment to the near post but the ball is played more at the D.

I would echo the comments on here that we have been decent from corners this year in terms of overall success. Yes of course there seem to be too many that hit the front man but our record in the prem shows decent success.And of course yesterday we had 2 golden chances for direct headers from corners.First where Mario takes it off Dzeko's head when he surely would have scored to put us 1 nil up and then when Kolo headed over in the 2nd half with a totally free header.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

That Kolo header was woeful.

Did Mario get a shout from Dzeko?

[craigmcfc]

That Kolo header was woeful.

Did Mario get a shout from Dzeko?

Haha I'd managed to forget about that Kolo one,that really was a shocker. He looked suitably embarrassed as he picked himself back up

[Grob]

Havent Vinny and Lescott scored 5 or 6 between them from corners this season? Seem to remember Savic powering home a header aswell.

So clearly we practice them.

I think a bigger issue is how we attack balls thats are put into the box from wide areas.

Well firstly, unless Kolorov is on, none of the others can put a dangerous ball into the box regulally. Clichy in particular finds himself in so much space yet couldnt cross a road. You'd this he'd work on that in training as it would add a new dimension to the team when he's playing.

Apart from Dzeko when he fancies it, no other striker attacks Kolorovs crosses. Mario inparticular rarely does which for a man of his capabilities is a waste.

Im sure Douglas would know this but do we practice attacking balls into the box in training?

[Ted Hughes]

We've been good on corners this season, even allowing for the fact that half of them are delivered to the first man. We should have scored from two yesterday & many of our lesser paid players of the past would have done.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Havent Vinny and Lescott scored 5 or 6 between them from corners this season? Seem to remember Savic powering home a header aswell.

So clearly we practice them.

I think a bigger issue is how we attack balls thats are put into the box from wide areas.

Well firstly, unless Kolorov is on, none of the others can put a dangerous ball into the box regulally. Clichy in particular finds himself in so much space yet couldnt cross a road. You'd this he'd work on that in training as it would add a new dimension to the team when he's playing.

Apart from Dzeko when he fancies it, no other striker attacks Kolorovs crosses. Mario inparticular rarely does which for a man of his capabilities is a waste.

Im sure Douglas would know this but do we practice attacking balls into the box in training?

First on Clichy I can assure you that he does work on crossing and quite often stays back for extra work with a coach where he runs onto passes down the wing and hits first time balls in.

On attacking crosses they do it to a point but the more I think of it,apart from Edin, they don't often look to head it.

[PeterParker]

If i recall, there was a thread here this winter where we were talking about this and statistically, we were one of the best teams at corners in the league, although we don't look that good.
If you ask me, all it''s on the shoulders of the deliverer and the only one that really knows how to take a corner, is Nasri, the other aren't that good.

[Nigels Tackle]

can't think of any team that takes good corners.

talk to fans of other clubs and they have the same moans as us on this issue. seems you can pay guys 50+k a week and they're still incapable of playing a ball in that beats the man at the near post.

[Grob]

First on Clichy I can assure you that he does work on crossing and quite often stays back for extra work with a coach where he runs onto passes down the wing and hits first time balls in.

On attacking crosses they do it to a point but the more I think of it,apart from Edin, they don't often look to head it.

Thanks. With clichy, is he actually crossing the ball into a target thats covered by a defender, i.e. mimicing a game situation or is he just crossing it into no-one? If the former then maybe he will just never be able to cross a ball and so I would start looking for replacements, if the latter, then I dont see the point of him practising!

Our A plan, well what I can put a finger on when watching us, isnt based around putting the ball into the box at all so it doesnt surprise me we dont attempt to if Kolorovs not played. Narrows the game too much for me though, we should be a multi faceted team which it comes to attacking capability with the players we have, not a one trick pony.

[Im_Spartacus]

First on Clichy I can assure you that he does work on crossing and quite often stays back for extra work with a coach where he runs onto passes down the wing and hits first time balls in.

On attacking crosses they do it to a point but the more I think of it,apart from Edin, they don't often look to head it.

We dont ever attack the ball in the area, that is a huge issue with our play full stop. Mario in particular is happy to stand and wait for the ball to come to him, edin attacks it on occasions and looks dangerous when he can be arsed, but sergio and the midfielders dont attack it either.

Very frustrating. Our corner scoring feats are more likely down to sheer number of corners than any quality execution.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

First on Clichy I can assure you that he does work on crossing and quite often stays back for extra work with a coach where he runs onto passes down the wing and hits first time balls in.

On attacking crosses they do it to a point but the more I think of it,apart from Edin, they don't often look to head it.

We dont ever attack the ball in the area, that is a huge issue with our play full stop. Mario in particular is happy to stand and wait for the ball to come to him, edin attacks it on occasions and looks dangerous when he can be arsed, but sergio and the midfielders dont attack it either.

Very frustrating. Our corner scoring feats are more likely down to sheer number of corners than any quality execution.

Thats sort of the way I feel. When Clichy stays for extra work there isnt anyone in the area for him to target,it's all about him making runs to get to balls for first time crosses. But the reality is that we don't as a team look for crosses and it is pretty well only Edin that attacks at all.

Thus it's a bit of hit and hope that it comes off and creates something.I would like to see,every time Kolarov is setting for a cross somebody bust a gut to get across the near post and at least one other getting behind him for the ball that goes further.We just don't seem to have the either that awareness of what's going on or any urgency to get there.All that despite training/practicing a lot on fast breaks where the ball is played out wide and we flood the box to get onto the cross.

[ashton287]

I thought we had a few good deliveries yesterday. No one on the end of them though.

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

I found this table relating to corners last season:



Which, based on us having, at a rough guess, 232 corners equals a conversion rate of 4.31% would mean a goal from every 23.2 comers (I may be well out here).

I suppose my point, if I was confident enough in my numbers, would mean that we shouldn't really expect a goal from a game with 17 corners - I remember reading something else not so long ago and thinking that the whole league's average was well below what I imagined, but also that we're not that bad in comparison to other sides