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Balotelli (never scored anyway but gone), Tevez, gone, Kolarov, going (hoorah!). Milner, takes the odd one but... Anyone else ?

Tevez took many of our most effective aerial free kicks last season, let alone direct shots.

Fernandinho can hit a ball & once scored a Tarnat type 40 yarder, but other than that, we have hardly any free kick takers at the club & NO specialists whatsoever. I wonder if the Count knows or has even considered, or is arsed about this (Mancini never even attempted to fix it), because I am.

RVP last min of the derby ? Was I the only one who thought that was going in before he even kicked it ? Think back over Ferguson's time at OT; how many times have they rescued a game or saved a game or taken control of a game with a free kick ?

City in the same situation ?

Add to that the fact that we allowed ourselves to become 2nd rate at corner kicks again after being mint in our title winning season.

We are talking the difference between trophies & no trophies here.

Does The Holy One not take set pieces?

Good point Ted and I agree it's worrying. Any idea if Jesus can bend them ?

If the messiah takes direct free kicks, he certainly doesn't score many.

yaya knows how to score from a set piece!!! check out the goals for the ivory coast

This is something that has been bugging me too. Every top team has someone that can hit a sweet dead ball.

You're spot on Ted about set pieces in general, according to Opta if set pieces were taken out of the equation last season City would have topped the PL table.

Ted Hughes wrote: Was I the only one who thought that was going in before he even kicked it ?

Nope, you weren't alone, it was like that penno that Vass took against the scum. I just knew what was going to happen and didn't look.
Still haven't seen that penalty to this day.

dick dastardley wrote:yaya knows how to score from a set piece!!! check out the goals for the ivory coast

Milner also knows how to take a free kick, just doesn't score many.

Most successful clubs have several top class free kick takers & over a season those free kicks win them a very significant number of points & change the course of games.

By not having one, we are seriously handicapping ourselves against all our competitors.

Milner, Silva, Aguero (he can take them!), Yaya and I think that's about it.

I agree that we do not have an out and out dead ball specialist though. Maybe we should sign Pirlo.

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:This is something that has been bugging me too. Every top team has someone that can hit a sweet dead ball.

You're spot on Ted about set pieces in general, according to Opta if set pieces were taken out of the equation last season City would have topped the PL table.

I think it would have been close two seasons earlier if we had scored as many from set pieces as the rags.

In our title winning season, I think we scored more (headers, scrambles etc from corners, not direct).

I'd trust Milner to take them, but no-one else, to be honest.

Aguero??

Ted Hughes wrote:

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:This is something that has been bugging me too. Every top team has someone that can hit a sweet dead ball.

You're spot on Ted about set pieces in general, according to Opta if set pieces were taken out of the equation last season City would have topped the PL table.

I think it would have been close two seasons earlier if we had scored as many from set pieces as the rags.

In our title winning season, I think we scored more (headers, scrambles etc from corners, not direct).

Yep, we were the most proficient side from corners in our title winning season.

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:This is something that has been bugging me too. Every top team has someone that can hit a sweet dead ball.

You're spot on Ted about set pieces in general, according to Opta if set pieces were taken out of the equation last season City would have topped the PL table.

I think it would have been close two seasons earlier if we had scored as many from set pieces as the rags.

In our title winning season, I think we scored more (headers, scrambles etc from corners, not direct).

Yep, we were the most proficient side from corners in our title winning season.

Amazes me how the manager failed to maintain that. There are few certain things you can definitely influence on the training ground but that is one. No confidence Pellegrini will do anything about it though. We'll see.

The only ones to practice them have been Kolarov,Milner and Sinclair on a regular basis. (Mario did occasionally but wasn't actually very good at it)Will be interesting to see who does this coming season.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:The only ones to practice them have been Kolarov,Milner and Sinclair on a regular basis. (Mario did occasionally but wasn't actually very good at it)Will be interesting to see who does this coming season.

Imo that's an example why Mario is unlikely to ever reach the level he is capable of.

He has that natural power which Ronaldo, Bale etc have but they have kept at it & worked until they perfected it.

I remember Gazbaz was taking really good free kick at Villa. I think this really is one big issue for us, not because we don"t have players that can take a free kick, but because we didn"t train them.

Look at Michael Bolton (David Luiz). He trained daily and now he is a really good free kick specialist. Mario was always shite, everytime the ball hit the wall.

Dunno what the fuss is we still have Lescott to take them.

PeterParker wrote:I remember Gazbaz was taking really good free kick at Villa. I think this really is one big issue for us, not because we don"t have players that can take a free kick, but because we didn"t train them.

Look at Michael Bolton (David Luiz). He trained daily and now he is a really good free kick specialist. Mario was always shite, everytime the ball hit the wall.

I really hope our new fangled academy will start teaching kids to take free kicks too. The old bunch of coaches were absolutely useless at it. Players who came through like Ireland & Michael Johnson would have been pinging them in the top corner regularly had they come through the rags system. At our club most of the academy products don't even take an interest in taking a free kick at first team level.

Joey Barton only did it because he taught himself.

I think we have one or two coming through who could become top notch if we work with them.

Ted Hughes wrote:

PeterParker wrote:I remember Gazbaz was taking really good free kick at Villa. I think this really is one big issue for us, not because we don"t have players that can take a free kick, but because we didn"t train them.

Look at Michael Bolton (David Luiz). He trained daily and now he is a really good free kick specialist. Mario was always shite, everytime the ball hit the wall.

I really hope our new fangled academy will start teaching kids to take free kicks too. The old bunch of coaches were absolutely useless at it. Players who came through like Ireland & Michael Johnson would have been pinging them in the top corner regularly had they come through the rags system. At our club most of the academy products don't even take an interest in taking a free kick at first team level.

Joey Barton only did it because he taught himself.

I think we have one or two coming through who could become top notch if we work with them.

Yeah, it all comes down to kids, however, there aren"t that many free kick takers like there were in the past. I"ve watched Spain playing with Uruguay last week and i asked myself why they can"t score with Xavi and Iniesta on the field. They took 3 or four (Ramos took one) and Muslera didn"t had a problem.

I think at the moment, every player is trying to copy the way Tranny is taking those, even Bale does that.

That rapist RVP is a great fucker, but he learned how to take those free kicks from the best free kick taker of our time, Pierre Van Hooijdonk. Remember when Feyenoord won the UEFA Cup back in 2002, PVH was their goal machine and he said that the young fella from the left, RVP at that time, asked him daily how to score from those.