Corners

[bayblue]

I'm Silva's biggest fan but he drives me to distraction with his corners. Milner, Nasri and Kola are all better than him (albeit not saying much) and let's not fool ourselves - it is inexcusable not to clear the first man, especially if, as often is the case, there isn't a City player within reach.

[Saul Goodman]

If we cant score when Dzeko is all alone 3 yards out then i dont know when we're ever gonna score from a corner again

[Wonderwall]

I think Sunday might be the day!

They will play with a back 3 of Lovren/Sakho & Skrtel & Can who are all big lads. the rest of the team are not gid whatsoever. Also Skrtel has been told he is not allowed to man mark anymore, he operates in the centre of the box close to the 6 yard line which leaves 2 big lads. I really hope we get MDM, Kompany, Yaya, Dzeko/Bony in the mix. Stick zaba on Skrtel biting his ankles! Although I reckon its Sagna this weekend!

[Moonchesteri]

Woohoo, we actually looked dangerous last night against barca and I think.....just think..... there might be a goal coming soon!

I thought we had some good corners in the Newcastle game so it is looking better. I don't think anymore that we will go 500 without scoring as I earlier predicted. we're gonna score one from one of the next hundred corners so not long now!

[Hutch's Shoulder]

Bony will get his first for us from a corner

[Nigels Tackle]

Bony will get his first for us from a corner

this season?!

[zuricity]

I hope our corner takers were watching tonight. PSG- that's how to take corners.

[Clowncrete]

Just shows how important set-pieces are. Really wish we improve in that regard.

[Herb]

About 3 games ago I heard a stat saying we'd had 128 corners in the season, at that point, and had scored 1 single goal from them.
I don't know if the stat is accurate (please provide true figures if they're not) but, as a City fan it certainly feels as shit bad as that so I actually believe it . . emotionally a least.

So, on the basis of 1 goal scored in 128 corners . . would we be better off just telling the ref that every ball out the ends was a goal kick? . . At a guess I'd say we score more goals by picking up on mis-hit goal kicks than we do from corners so why not?

[Moonchesteri]

I think the number is actually 347 corners right now
Since that Demi's goal

[Herb]

I think the number is actually 347 corners right now
Since that Demi's goal

Ouch . . so I was being optimistic in my guesswork then? . .

. . If that's true then it's a stunningly dire statistic . .

. . you've just got to be joking right?

[Scatman]

It's 179 in the league since the last one we scored

[iwasthere2012]

PSG's weren't too shabby tonight.

[Dameerto]

We've been close a couple of times recently though, they've improved lately. Just a matter of time - maybe Bony can bag one.

[Im_Spartacus]

http://www.soccerbythenumbers.com/2011/ ... lmost.html

"Across the big leagues, the correlation between corners and goals is essentially 0 (it's strongest in the EPL at .06, and weakest in Serie A and La Liga at less than 0.1). So, statistically speaking, the offensive "value" of corners seems to be slim to none. Similarly, match outcomes appear to be unaffected by corners. Assuming that earning corners is an indicator of offensive pressure, shouldn't teams that generate lots of corners also be teams that generate more goals? What gives?

The yield from corners ranges from 0 to .07. On average, the data show that a corner is good for (drumroll ....) 0.022 goals. This means that the average EPL team scores 1 goal from a corner about every 10 games. And this helps to explain the lack of a correlation between the number of corners and goal scoring. The infrequency of the goals from corners combined with a lack of dispersion between teams in corners per game lead conspire to make corners mostly, well, useless when it comes to scoring goals.

The patterns reported here do raise some interesting questions about corners more generally and what this means for how teams should think about them. Assuming that most corners are played long and into the vicinity of the six yard box, perhaps the obvious implication is not to think of corners as goal scoring opportunities in the first place. Sure, there's something really impressive about a beautifully and accurately struck corner kick that leads to a header the goalie can't hope to get his hands on. But, as the data suggest, these moments are few and very far between. So instead, perhaps we should think of corners as opportunities to maintain possession in the final third of the pitch. So unless you've got a Peter Crouch-like striker lurking in front of the goal all by himself, you should think about taking short corners."

[Wonderwall]

OK here you Go - took us 23 corners to score a goal this season against Arsenal, we haven't scored from a corner since then and that is a total of 219 corners since we scored. Or 1 goal in 242 corners! That is rather ridiculous, especially if we worked out some routines to get us points as you will see we lost some points in games where we were corner dominant (I have picked out the games with 10+ corners but in reality 7 is a dominant number).

A Newcastle - 3
H Liverpool - 6
H Stoke - 11 (didnt win)
A Arsenal - 3 GOAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL DeMichelis
A Bayern - 4
H Chelsea - 14 (didnt win)
A Hull - 8
H Roma - 7
A Villa - 7
H Spurs - 3
A CSKA - 4
A WHU - 8
H Rags - 7
H CSKA - 6
A QPR - 7
H Swansea - 7
H Bayern - 6
A Southampton - 6
A Sunderland - 0
H Everton - 11 (won)
A Roma - 4
A Leicester - 2
H Crystal Palace - 8
A West Brom - 6
H Burnley - 10 (didnt win)
H Sunderland - 10 (won)
A Everton - 9
H Arsenal - 16 (didnt win)
A Chelsea - 8
H Hull - 13 (didnt win)
A Stoke - 2
H Newcastle - 7
H Barca - 8
A Liverpool - 0
H Leicester - 10 (won)

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Can we do the Poznan if we score from one?

By my calculations we are 7 goals shy on where we were this time last season in terms of scoring from corners in the league, that's almost half of our deficit in total goals scored compared to last season.

[sheblue]

OK here you Go - took us 23 corners to score a goal this season against Arsenal, we haven't scored from a corner since then and that is a total of 219 corners since we scored. Or 1 goal in 242 corners! That is rather ridiculous, especially if we worked out some routines to get us points as you will see we lost some points in games where we were corner dominant (I have picked out the games with 10+ corners but in reality 7 is a dominant number).

A Newcastle - 3
H Liverpool - 6
H Stoke - 11 (didnt win)
A Arsenal - 3 GOAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL DeMichelis
A Bayern - 4
H Chelsea - 14 (didnt win)
A Hull - 8
H Roma - 7
A Villa - 7
H Spurs - 3
A CSKA - 4
A WHU - 8
H Rags - 7
H CSKA - 6
A QPR - 7
H Swansea - 7
H Bayern - 6
A Southampton - 6
A Sunderland - 0
H Everton - 11 (won)
A Roma - 4
A Leicester - 2
H Crystal Palace - 8
A West Brom - 6
H Burnley - 10 (didnt win)
H Sunderland - 10 (won)
A Everton - 9
H Arsenal - 16 (didnt win)
A Chelsea - 8
H Hull - 13 (didnt win)
A Stoke - 2
H Newcastle - 7
H Barca - 8
A Liverpool - 0
H Leicester - 10 (won)

That really is shocking, although the corners have been improving "slightly" in recent games they are still pretty terrible.

[Ted Hughes]

One of the reasons for us not scoring from corners, is the makeup of the team this season.

In many games, the oppo just has to stop the two centre backs & the job is done. If Mangala, Demi or Vince don't score, & Dzeko isn't playing, who would you worry about as an opponent, even if David Beckham was taking the corners ? Yaya is big but hardly ever heads a ball in the box. Jovetic ? Aguero=dwarf.

With no Dzeko, Negredo, the opposition can just concentrate 100% on stopping two players. Then Silva scuffs the ball to the first man anyway.

Get Siva off corners, get Dzeko or Bony in the box, more chance of scoring.

Thiago's goal last night was great. No fucking about, lump the ball in, he outjumps the defenders & scores. That's how 90% of them were scored when Bell, Doyle, Booth, Watson, Royle, Kidd etc etc did it. Not by fancy curving ball trajectory. Get the cunt in there, away from the keeper, & head it.

Great goal. Tommy Booth style.

[sheblue]

Yes but the delivery of the corners has been shite too, often failing to beat the first man.