Corners

[PONGO49]

How long is it going to be till this is sorted out.  It seems like ever game we concede a goal from them.  Its getting beyond a joke now, I start shitting myself every time the opposition have a corner...

[Summers]

It's all set pieces for me. We're not good enough attacking them or defending them.

[TonyD]

It did take 11

[eamonn]

I mentioned it on the post-match thread but we conceded 12 corners in the second half tonight; the odds are any decent team will score from at least one of them. And it looked like the ball deflected off Gabby which wrong-footed Guzan so we can count ourselves a bit unlucky.

Maybe we should concentrate on not condeding too many.

[OzVilla]

I actually have no idea how we are set up for these. I read about use using zonal, then I read it's man to man - problem is it looks like it's neither.

18 months ago, this was our strong point, now it's our downfall.  I might be nieve, but what happened to you have him, you have him and then one on each post - the flippin basics.

[OzVilla]

Also, their delivery from corners was excellent all night.  Much better than ours.

[PeterWithesShin]

Give away 15 corners and you're asking for trouble.

[Matt C]

Wish we'd revert to man to man marking though.

[Percy McCarthy]

Wish we'd revert to man to man marking though.

Is this a wind-up?

Anyway, back in the real world, wish we'd stop man-to-man marking and revert to zonal.

[D.boy]

Nevermind Zonal/man to man marking, how about being first to the bloody ball.

[PeterWithesShin]

Maybe we should try marking the ball?

[Percy McCarthy]

Nevermind Zonal/man to man marking, how about being first to the bloody ball.

Exactly. In zonal you concentrate on the ball, not the man. Man-marking involves everybody chasing people around the box and ignoring the ball until it's too late.

[brontebilly]

we used to be shit hot at defending and attacking set pieces under MON.

My preference is for zonal, fairly sure thats what we had under MON so why change it?

To be fair under MON we tended to have Cuellar and Carew in the side who were beasts in the air. Even Emule when he played was useful at defending set pieces. Hutton doesnt seem great if the goal against Liverpool is anything to go by, the likes of Petrov, Albrighton, Gabby, Nzogbia, Ireland, Bannan, Bent arent going to clear too many either. Throw in Given or Guzan reluctant to leave their line and we are weak. Stoke will have a field day in the air against us.

Attacking set pieces have gone to pot even before Young left but they are shocking now. We used curl them in around the six yard box but now Petrov, Bannan, Nzogbia look to put it out by the penalty box. Petrov did put in the assist for Dunne against Sunderland but shocking as it is to say for a professional football team but we lack someone with the technique to put in decent dead ball deliveries. The movement in the box is shocking now too. Its rare enough one of our players actually gets across the defender and puts a shot on target not to mind scoring from them. Maybe we are better off taking short ones and trying for a shot from distance. Might deflect off someone into the net.

[Steve R]

Our ability at corners either end of the pitch took a big hit when first Mellberg and then Laursen departed.

We've been indifferent to poor for longer than  18 months.

When Houllier said it would be sorted in the summer I suspect he meant that it was really a transfer window issue rather than methods and systems. We need better players.

I took some of McLeish's comments on Sunday to mean that he now thinks the same. We shall see.

[Matt Collins]

We were man to man yday for sure. Although zonal gets criticised, you saw the flaw in man to man. Gabby doesn't do his job and the smallest guy in their team scores without jumping.

With zonal, there'd be at least two players concentrating on stopping the ball even getting there. With man to man they're all concentrating on their own man.

I think under MON we used a mixed approach?