Set pieces ….

L

langham

First Team
Now a major problem area. We’re conceding repeatedly and, at the same time, have shocking delivery from many corners and free kicks. This alone is a formula for relegation. As Leicester have found out, it is possible to drill the defence to eliminate the worst errors at the back. Can Tommy Elphick do the job? If not, we need a coach who can.

As to our free kicks and corners … we’ve tried Tavernier, Christie and Cook … with the early exception of Tavernier they‘ve been duds. Even Stanislas flopped against Saints. Is it a coaching issue, or don’t we have anyone in the squad capable of decent delivery? Is Rothwell any better? Should we recruit a dead-ball specialist in January? All the more obvious yesterday watching Son’s mostly impeccable corners.
 
A lack of a set piece taker has been a concern for a long time and it is surprising it hasn't been addressed. Perhaps they thought in the absence of a fully fit and firing Stanislas that Tavernier was the answer, but he has been woeful on any kind of delivery since his first opening games.

Organisation in defending set pieces is another separate issue, if it wasn't for Moore dominating everything yesterday it could have been a lot worse.

I believe the job used to fall to Scott Parker's goalkeeper coach as he appeared to take centre stage on the touchline rotation when defending corners and free-kicks previously, obviously he has since departed and we are working with a skeleton staff.
 
DJ said:
A lack of a set piece taker has been a concern for a long time and it is surprising it hasn't been addressed. Perhaps they thought in the absence of a fully fit and firing Stanislas that Tavernier was the answer, but he has been woeful on any kind of delivery since his first opening games.

Organisation in defending set pieces is another separate issue, if it wasn't for Moore dominating everything yesterday it could have been a lot worse.

I believe the job used to fall to Scott Parker's goalkeeper coach as he appeared to take centre stage on the touchline rotation when defending corners and free-kicks previously, obviously he has since departed and we are working with a skeleton staff.
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with Moore, Solanke , Billing, Mepham, Lerma and Senesi on the pitch we should be totally dominating set pieces at both ends .
I do agree though the delivery isn’t good enough and apart from Stanislas we are totally lacking.
Travers flapping and Zemuras ability to lose his man obviously didn’t help for their 2nd
 
DJ said:
A lack of a set piece taker has been a concern for a long time and it is surprising it hasn't been addressed. Perhaps they thought in the absence of a fully fit and firing Stanislas that Tavernier was the answer, but he has been woeful on any kind of delivery since his first opening games.

Organisation in defending set pieces is another separate issue, if it wasn't for Moore dominating everything yesterday it could have been a lot worse.

I believe the job used to fall to Scott Parker's goalkeeper coach as he appeared to take centre stage on the touchline rotation when defending corners and free-kicks previously, obviously he has since departed and we are working with a skeleton staff.
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DJ - interesting point about GO’s coaching team. If he doesn’t have the appropriate people in the group it suggests serious instability In the coaching set-up … makes O’Neill’s exit more likely. A team that struggles through the season with set pieces at either end is sunk.
 
We have statistically one of the tallest squads in the league. Along with Spurs funnily enough.

So our poor performance at both ends is purely down to coaching.
 
I could be wrong but I'm sure I heard that Gareth Stewart had taken over the role on defending set pieces.........
 
Hmmm - Gareth Stewart… thought of him yesterday when Travers flapped at that corner for the Spurs goal. Almost identical to Stewart’s error at Reading when we failed to make the playoffs despite going into a two-goal lead. An unpleasant deja vu.
 
We conceded from two corners yesterday, but we had to defend 19 of them, so one or two were going to count against a side like Spurs.

I know Spurs made some important substitutions yesterday, but our best form of defence was to keep the other side in their own half, yesterday after being 2-0 up we should have kept playing the way that gave us that lead.

One time I thought our side were one of the fittest over the period of a game, so has something changed and we had to sit back against a Spurs side who had been reported were tired because of the league and Champions league games had started to take their toll?
 
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Yes, we gave Spurs plenty of set piece opportunities yesterday but that must be about nine let in this season already. It's a rate that simply isn't sustainable if we want to stay up.

Meanwhile our attacking set pieces aren't even L1 in the standard of the initial ball in. It's genuinely shocking how bad the delivery is.

We aren't a 'you score three and we're score four' type team. That's what makes the lack of impact at both ends so damaging.

Tavernier started well but completely lost it and was swiftly abysmal. L Cook doesn't have it.

There has to be an argument for trying to start Stanislas. We know from his history he can take time to adjust when he comes back from injury but he then is genuine PL quality and can take a set piece. Alternating between him and Anthony as attacking/scoring options on one side means the other can be hard working between Tavernier and Christie.

On the defensive side... there must be consultants we could get in short term to help. Like Liverpool did a few years ago to sort out their throw ins.
 
with the set pieces we conceded to individual errors you can train as much as you want but if Travers is gonna flap around like a bird after being hit by a car you can't put that down to poor set piece defending, I'm sure it's not in the training for him to do that.
I thought defensively we held up well against all the corners against someone who can deliver the ball well consistently.
our attacking set pieces are a real worry though surely there is someone at the club who can deliver a good ball more then 1 in 10 attempts?
 
langham said:
Now a major problem area. We’re conceding repeatedly and, at the same time, have shocking delivery from many corners and free kicks. This alone is a formula for relegation. As Leicester have found out, it is possible to drill the defence to eliminate the worst errors at the back. Can Tommy Elphick do the job? If not, we need a coach who can.

As to our free kicks and corners … we’ve tried Tavernier, Christie and Cook … with the early exception of Tavernier they‘ve been duds. Even Stanislas flopped against Saints. Is it a coaching issue, or don’t we have anyone in the squad capable of decent delivery? Is Rothwell any better? Should we recruit a dead-ball specialist in January? All the more obvious yesterday watching Son’s mostly impeccable corners.
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A tall, physical midfielder, his elegant gliding style is a direct contradiction to his imposing frame. Shoulders back, go get em’ mentality, Rothwell can be seen driving through the heart of darkness and into the valley of death. No assertions about where he is going.

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Whilst not a prolific midfielder, often electing to find a teammate over taking a shot, he still provides a threat in and around the area. This is a player of supreme technique, and unremarkably, this translates to his shooting. He places his shots with the same calm and composure with which he takes on his man.

Rothwell is a selfless player, and he took this to another level last season, providing ten assists – the same total amount he had produced in the previous five seasons.

https://breakingthelines.com/player-analysis/joe-rothwell-analyzing-bournemouths-latest-recruit/
 
In Travers defence I would say our defenders were too close to him and I think it was Zemurra who got in his way.

For coaching our players in how to take corners just compile a video of the 19 corners Son and Perisic took yesterday.
 
paul49 said:
In Travers defence I would say our defenders were too close to him and I think it was Zemurra who got in his way.

For coaching our players in how to take corners just compile a video of the 19 corners Son and Perisic took yesterday.
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A keeper like Peter Schmeichel used to mow down defenders that got in his way. That's the physical presence a keeper needs sometimes. If you just bounce off defenders you'll always struggle.
 
As BTK said... When you give the opposition that many corners and that much opportunity on the ball to swing it in, then you are always gonna top the bill of worst PL side for conceding to set pieces...

Just goes to add fuel to the whole 'too defensive' argument and that we have it in us to perform on the front foot as well, if given the opportunity... Yes we can defend, but at some point, defending for the spells we tend to do atm, we're always gonna concede set pieces and then inevitably, goals...

Be brave FFS GON, go at teams...

We don't remove Billing yesterday, who was winning a lot of the balls from Spurs' set pieces yesterday, and we carry on playing more front foot than defensive, and we win that game yesterday...
 
billythekid said:
We conceded from two corners yesterday, but we had to defend 19 of them, so one or two were going to count against a side like Spurs.

I know Spurs made some important substitutions yesterday, but our best form of defence was to keep the other side in their own half, yesterday after being 2-0 up we should have kept playing the way that gave us that lead.

One time I thought our side were one of the fittest over the period of a game, so has something changed and we had to sit back against a Spurs side who had been reported were tired because of the league and Champions league games had started to take their toll?
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I think it's a bit different now when teams like Spurs can sub virtually half the team. Excluding the goalie and two centre backs they can sub any player who's expended much energy. Basically just say to players to give it everything they've got for 60 minutes then sub them with fresh legs. It's changing the game completely. Next up 2 then 4 compulsory drinks breaks so Sky can show more ads and therefore pay more for tv rights to the advantage of the top teams.
 
Johnny Comelately said:
I think it's a bit different now when teams like Spurs can sub virtually half the team. Excluding the goalie and two centre backs they can sub any player who's expended much energy. Basically just say to players to give it everything they've got for 60 minutes then sub them with fresh legs. It's changing the game completely.
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A point that has been massively overlooked by many.
 
DJ said:
A point that has been massively overlooked by many.
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I don’t think it’s overlooked. We had good subs on the bench but chose not to use them. Pearson was brilliant seeing the game out v Villa and could have come on for a tiring Cook to help regain the midfield for example rather than just endless defenders. Rothwell could have come on for Billing and allowed us to keep shape and formation. Their subs are better but so is there starting eleven. If we think because of that we can’t compete then we are just going down the Parker narrative route. At 2-0 up at home you should come out of a game with at least a point against anyone.

Leeds took the right attitude to Liverpool and Fulham have taken the right attitude into most games this season. We are just too negative. It’s hard for me watching because I love to see negative football punished (Burnley and West Brom of old etc) but not when it’s my own team.
 
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