Set Pieces.

[SoccerHQ]

We still seem to be having trouble with these and yet again they're costing us points.

I suppose you can say the one at Spurs had an element of luck about it as the Defoe shot was going wide before it hit Caulker.

Today though it wasn't even a good delievery and yet it still somehow snuck through for Chris Fcuking Baird of all players to score.

It's a different manager (not that I think he's any great shakes in organising a defence), a completely different back 4 from last season and we still can't defend them properly and we still don't look that threatening when we have our own corners and free kicks.

Vlaar in fairness seems to be improving every game which is good to see but having a Chris Samba like brickouse monster in there to head away time and again would eradicate this problem I think.

[PaulWinch again]

We're not good at defending or attacking them unfortunately.

[SoccerHQ]

So I posted this months ago after Fulham away....

Seriously WTF is going on. Not just last season when we conceded 15 + but since then we've changed back 4 once again, have a new manager and are now probably even worse.

Going from what our anointed manager said the other day, it appears we mark man for man rather than zonally so dunno if that's an issue. It's not like we have a team of midgets either, Benteke, Clark, Vlaar, Baker all are decent sized.

Oh for another Martin Laursen who didn't care about man on man but just sensed danger and headed the ball away from the box 9 times out of 10. Only defender I can think of who would be ideal for that now would be Chris Samba.

[ozzjim]

Seriously, what the fuck do we do. Go, attack the fucking ball and clear the ******. No watching a man. None of that shit. Clear. The. Ball!!

[Toronto Villa]

As great as Laursen was his all action style also led to him making errors and costing us goals. Laursen's balance in the good books massively outweighs any errors he makes so it is naturally to overlook the fact that he did sometimes cost us. That said, I'd take him every day of the fucking week over any of our lot today.

[PaulWinch again]

It's is completely hopeless, and embarrassing.

[neo_Villan]

I have a theory on this. Not only are we poor at defending set pieces but we are also poor at attacking them too. So in training we they have attackers vs forwards for set pieces, I assume that the defence are not being adequately tested and are therefore not properly prepared against teams that do attack them well. 

[Ross]

We've been shit under the past 3 managers and I just don't get it.

[Rigadon]

Seriously, what the fuck do we do. Go, attack the fucking ball and clear the c***. No watching a man. None of that shit. Clear. The. Ball!!

Spot on.  Stop over-thinking it and win the first header.  Better still, stop conceding soft fucking corner and free kicks down the left.

[Matt Collins]

I think it's three main things: we generally don't have many players who are good in the air. It's rare we have more than one defender who is and Benteke loses his man. In the MON days wed normally have 3 centre halves plus warnock and either heskey or Carew. Even petrov would fight. Our full backs and midfielders are no use at all defending set pieces

Added to that there's a lack of fight and concentration

The same issues apply in attack plus our delivery is poor

[danno]

I think our side is pretty small to be fairness.

or at least not very strong.

how often do we lose possession on the second ball or 50/50 challenges?

and the amount of times we press the self destruct button when
a ball is launched over the top, or into our box..

maybe its a character thing. we shouldn't need eleven giants.

[SoccerHQ]

I also remember the year under Houllier, Young was suddenly instructed not to whip it in under the near post but to float/chip it towards the back post which Bannan continued with. Result, we went two years without scoring from a corner.

Our delievery is shite, Westwood is the only decent set piece taker we have at the club imo.

[neo_Villan]

Bannan's delivery is good when he whips it in. Lambert has to get the blame though as all he has to do is tell him to stop floating it.

[martin o`who??]

Can`t score from them, can`t defend them either. we really are a shambles at the moment, forgive me for asking this, but isnt that what the training ground is for?.

[Mortimer's Bear]

Can`t score from them, can`t defend them either. we really are a shambles at the moment, forgive me for asking this, but isnt that what the training ground is for?.

The problem (as stated elsewhere on here) is during training our inept defenders are practising corners against our inept forwards. Oh add to that the fact the corners in training are being taken by our inept corner takers and I think you'll see the problem.