We need to talk about Set Pieces

[cms186]

Tonight, we conceded the 23rd and 24th goals of the season that we've conceded from a Set Piece from 62 goals conceded in total, that is nearly 40% of the entirety of the Goals we've conceded this season, needless to say, that is the Worst in the League (and probably the Country)

Although i dont have the numbers on me, We're also pretty Dire with Attacking Set Pieces (outside of Penalties I guess, but thats a different Kettle of Fish), have we scored more than 5 goals from a Corner/FK? I doubt it.

Although this season seems to mark a new low even for us, this isnt anything new, we've been pretty awful at Defending Set Pieces for a while and I dont recall us having any Consistent threat from Set Pieces since Lewis McGugan left (i might be wrong there), this is a Characteristic of the Club that needs to be reversed if we ever want to be succesful, no Club is going to sniff the Play Offs if they can neither Defend or Attack Set Pieces reliably. Part of the Prpblem is size, none of our Central Defenders are more than 6'1 and our Full Backs are Short to the extent that they are being spefically targeted with Aerial Balls, some of the Size Mismatches tonight were ridiculous. The worst thing was, if we were halfway competent at Defending Set Pieces, we could have easily beaten Cardiff tonight, we were the better team and outside of Zohore hitting the post, Im struggling to remember a Cardiff chance that wasnt a Set Piece, this is a flaw that needs to be sorted in the Summer as a matter of Urgency.

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

It didn't help tonight we had a shy keeper and a midget defence. Summer transfer window gives us the opportunity to address those.

The big problem tonight is that Morrison was clearly their target man and about five different players marked him from set pieces: Fox, Osborn, Bridcutt, Colback and Mancienne.

Sorry, but what the f*** is Toby doing? It has to be his man tonight, and the fact that NO ONE pointed that out to him at any point was ridiculous. Even if the manager gets it wrong, someone on the pitch needs to have a word. Toby was our tallest defender, he picks up Morrison.

 

[Flaggers]

We need to sack the manager who had us scoring lots but conceding a few and replace him with a manager whose remit is to stop us conceding, at the expense of most of the enjoyable aspects of the game.

That'll sort it

I know this because I've had it drummed in to me in here.

 

[cms186]

It didn't help tonight we had a shy keeper and a midget defence. Summer transfer window gives us the opportunity to address those.

The big problem tonight is that Morrison was clearly their target man and about five different players marked him from set pieces: Fox, Osborn, Bridcutt, Colback and Mancienne.

Sorry, but what the f*** is Toby doing? It has to be his man tonight, and the fact that NO ONE pointed that out to him at any point was ridiculous. Even if the manager gets it wrong, someone on the pitch needs to have a word. Toby was our tallest defender, he picks up Morrison.

Toby was marking Morrison for his goal, he just got blocked off and Lost him.

The commentator mentioned that we were employing a semi-zonal marking system at corners, i dont know how accurate that is, but if it is, we need to stop it, because zonal marking from corners is dumb as f***. I dont know what the solution is, but its not my job to, Karanka needs to sort it out.

 

[Alf-engelos Mindminackers]

We need to sack the manager who had us scoring lots but conceding a few and replace him with a manager whose remit is to stop us conceding, at the expense of most of the enjoyable aspects of the game.

That'll sort it

I know this because I've had it drummed in to me in here.

Ironically, had we kept Warburton & allowed him to sign the defenders he was after to address these issues we'd be further on than we are now.

Bizare how changing manager doesn't make players 4 inch taller or put 3 stone of muscle on

 

[cms186]

Ironically, had we kept Warburton & allowed him to sign the defenders he was after to address these issues we'd be further on than we are now.

Bizare how changing manager doesn't make players 4 inch taller or put 3 stone of muscle on

Thats always the way when you change Managers and philosophies midway through a season tbf.

 

[Rockabilly]

One thing is for sure...

we can't defend set pieces, and we can't score from them either.

 

[MASE]

Ironically, had we kept Warburton & allowed him to sign the defenders he was after to address these issues we'd be further on than we are now.

Bizare how changing manager doesn't make players 4 inch taller or put 3 stone of muscle on

If Warburton had shown any inclination to at least address our defensive shambles then he may have got that chance, We were equally negligent at set pieces under him, but we can at least defend in open play & we can now put some attacking combinations together too.

I'm surprised we haven't gone beyond the point Warburtons still considered viable.

Karanka has his first choice keeper in today & it aint a talking point.

 

[Ravi]

Cardiff’s entire game plan is based on scoring from set pieces. Hardly the team to get overly upset about this stuff.

 

[magicwoand]

Tonight, we conceded the 23rd and 24th goals of the season that we've conceded from a Set Piece from 62 goals conceded in total, that is nearly 40% of the entirety of the Goals we've conceded this season, needless to say, that is the Worst in the League (and probably the Country)

Although i dont have the numbers on me, We're also pretty Dire with Attacking Set Pieces (outside of Penalties I guess, but thats a different Kettle of Fish), have we scored more than 5 goals from a Corner/FK? I doubt it.

Although this season seems to mark a new low even for us, this isnt anything new, we've been pretty awful at Defending Set Pieces for a while and I dont recall us having any Consistent threat from Set Pieces since Lewis McGugan left (i might be wrong there), this is a Characteristic of the Club that needs to be reversed if we ever want to be succesful, no Club is going to sniff the Play Offs if they can neither Defend or Attack Set Pieces reliably. Part of the Prpblem is size, none of our Central Defenders are more than 6'1 and our Full Backs are Short to the extent that they are being spefically targeted with Aerial Balls, some of the Size Mismatches tonight were ridiculous. The worst thing was, if we were halfway competent at Defending Set Pieces, we could have easily beaten Cardiff tonight, we were the better team and outside of Zohore hitting the post, Im struggling to remember a Cardiff chance that wasnt a Set Piece, this is a flaw that needs to be sorted in the Summer as a matter of Urgency.

I think if you add all the goals we concede from crosses as well it must be pushing 65% of our total goals shipped. As you say it’s doubly annoying when we rarely beat the first man to even contemplate a threat.

 

[adam09]

I find it amazing how every other team seems capable of whipping a good free kick or corner into the box and we haven’t done for years. Who was the last really good corner/free kick taker? Cohen was acceptable, Reidy strangely was quite bad, Lansbury liked to balloon them off the other side of the pitch. Nicky Southall?

 

[Wes' Organ]

I find it amazing how every other team seems capable of whipping a good free kick or corner into the box and we haven’t done for years. Who was the last really good corner/free kick taker? Cohen was acceptable, Reidy strangely was quite bad, Lansbury liked to balloon them off the other side of the pitch. Nicky Southall?

Cohen's whips to the back post were as good as anything but otherwise you have to go back to Lewis and Radi was decent on the rare occasions he got the chance.

 

[Barry]

We need to sack the manager who had us scoring lots but conceding a few and replace him with a manager whose remit is to stop us conceding, at the expense of most of the enjoyable aspects of the game.

That'll sort it

I know this because I've had it bummed in to me in here.

Wait, what?

 

[Hawkeye1947]

It didn't help tonight we had a shy keeper and a midget defence. Summer transfer window gives us the opportunity to address those.

The big problem tonight is that Morrison was clearly their target man and about five different players marked him from set pieces: Fox, Osborn, Bridcutt, Colback and Mancienne.

Sorry, but what the f*** is Toby doing? It has to be his man tonight, and the fact that NO ONE pointed that out to him at any point was ridiculous. Even if the manager gets it wrong, someone on the pitch needs to have a word. Toby was our tallest defender, he picks up Morrison.

First of all I thought we played very well apart from set pieces.
I looked at the height of Morrison, Bamba and Manga and they are either 6ft 4ins Or 6ft 3ins tall. Then you look at the long throw ins and that is a deadly conversation to have and to try and defend against. Would I like to watch that type of football every match no way. In saying that our set piec defending all season has been rubbish and we have definetly got to get it sorted as teams next year will target us again. I think a Michael Dawson tonight would have changed the outcome. We had more than enough chances to win.

 

[GreeksBearingGifts]

Being inept in attacking from set pieces is really the flip side of defending horribly in set pieces. When during practice you don't have military precision in attacking set pieces, defenders don't train as effectively as they should in learning how to deal with them. It's the first thing AK should be working on during the summer.

It really doesn't make much sense, because you work well without the ball, both in attack and, now, in defence. You just don't have it in you when the ball is in the air.

Take the two goals:

- In goal one, Cardiff play the oldest trick in the book: one player harasses the goalkeeper to prevent him from stepping out (Colback should really have done a better job there, not allowing him to block Kapino), and Morrison makes a very ordinary circular movement to lose Tobias and find himself in the right place. The big mistake is not Figureido's, as I've read in the match thread, it is Fox's. It was his job to block Morrison, when he got released from Figueiredo's marking. That's why Tobias was furious after the goal.

- In goal two, Cardiff play the second oldest trick in the book: a header at the far post to the middle of the box. The problem is that there is only Mancienne defending two players in the far post, so the header is easily won by Cardiff and, then, when every defence in the world knows that the ball will go in the middle of the box, both Colback and Lichaj rush towards the goal to block incoming fire instead of trying to block the opponents, and Fox makes a ridiculously half-hearted attempt at the ball.

I have no explanation. You seem scared, make poor decisions, and defend too softly in set pieces.

 

[Statto]

Actually I think we didn't do too badly with the actual defending the set pieces last night. Yes, we conceded from two of them, but we did give them an awful lot more. According to the stats on the BBD, Cardiff had 6 corners and 15 free kicks (most of those would be in a dangerous area), there isn't the stats for Aron Gunnarsson's throws.

So that's 21 set pieces that we have stats for and with the throwins you can probably add another 5-10 on top of that. Considering that means the worst defence ever at set plays was coming up against a side who are very good, that means we had in the region of 30 free kicks, corners and throws to defend and only conceded from 2 of them, so there's a fair amount of opportunities we did successfully defend.

Like a lot of the issues in the squad this isn't something which can be sorted out until the transfer window opens. We just don't have any tall defenders except Worrall, and he isn't particularly tall, our midfield and attacking options (aside from Vellios and Murphy) have the same issue.

Ben Osborn marking Sean Morrison at a corner, what is that even about? Saying that, we don't have anyone who can deal with that at all. By the end you'd got Fox and Toby just trying to pull him down in the box, which if it doesn't go unnoticed, is probably a penalty.

I think the main issue last night is that we were actually quite willing to give Cardiff the opportunities by conceding the set pieces to begin with. Giving away silly free kicks in dangerous areas, for example.

 

[Ricochet]

We need to sack the manager who had us scoring lots but conceding a few and replace him with a manager whose remit is to stop us conceding, at the expense of most of the enjoyable aspects of the game.

That'll sort it

I know this because I've had it drummed in to me in here.

If we scored loads and conceded a few we'd be near the top of the league flaggers,l must of missed that.

 

[Le Juif Rouge]

Cardiff’s entire game plan is based on scoring from set pieces. Hardly the team to get overly upset about this stuff.

Particularly when the game was no more than a training session for us.

 

[Viktor]

It looked as if our team had never seen a set piece before. We all know how a Warnock team sets up at the end of the day. Piss poor from everyone.


Sent from the Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

Being inept in attacking from set pieces is really the flip side of defending horribly in set pieces. When during practice you don't have military precision in attacking set pieces, defenders don't train as effectively as they should in learning how to deal with them. It's the first thing AK should be working on during the summer.

It really doesn't make much sense, because you work well without the ball, both in attack and, now, in defence. You just don't have it in you when the ball is in the air.

Take the two goals:

- In goal one, Cardiff play the oldest trick in the book: one player harasses the goalkeeper to prevent him from stepping out (Colback should really have done a better job there, not allowing him to block Kapino), and Morrison makes a very ordinary circular movement to lose Tobias and find himself in the right place. The big mistake is not Figureido's, as I've read in the match thread, it is Fox's. It was his job to block Morrison, when he got released from Figueiredo's marking. That's why Tobias was furious after the goal.

- In goal two, Cardiff play the second oldest trick in the book: a header at the far post to the middle of the box. The problem is that there is only Mancienne defending two players in the far post, so the header is easily won by Cardiff and, then, when every defence in the world knows that the ball will go in the middle of the box, both Colback and Lichaj rush towards the goal to block incoming fire instead of trying to block the opponents, and Fox makes a ridiculously half-hearted attempt at the ball.

I have no explanation. You seem scared, make poor decisions, and defend too softly in set pieces.

But but, Fox is amazing, that can't be right!

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[Flaggers]

If we scored loads and conceded a few we'd be near the top of the league flaggers,l must of missed that.

We were higher up the league with the previous manager than we are with the current one. I guess you missed that bit?

 

[Alf-engelos Mindminackers]

Being inept in attacking from set pieces is really the flip side of defending horribly in set pieces. When during practice you don't have military precision in attacking set pieces, defenders don't train as effectively as they should in learning how to deal with them. It's the first thing AK should be working on during the summer.

It really doesn't make much sense, because you work well without the ball, both in attack and, now, in defence. You just don't have it in you when the ball is in the air.

Take the two goals:

- In goal one, Cardiff play the oldest trick in the book: one player harasses the goalkeeper to prevent him from stepping out (Colback should really have done a better job there, not allowing him to block Kapino), and Morrison makes a very ordinary circular movement to lose Tobias and find himself in the right place. The big mistake is not Figureido's, as I've read in the match thread, it is Fox's. It was his job to block Morrison, when he got released from Figueiredo's marking. That's why Tobias was furious after the goal.

- In goal two, Cardiff play the second oldest trick in the book: a header at the far post to the middle of the box. The problem is that there is only Mancienne defending two players in the far post, so the header is easily won by Cardiff and, then, when every defence in the world knows that the ball will go in the middle of the box, both Colback and Lichaj rush towards the goal to block incoming fire instead of trying to block the opponents, and Fox makes a ridiculously half-hearted attempt at the ball.

I have no explanation. You seem scared, make poor decisions, and defend too softly in set pieces.

I do,

We lack the unity, bollocks & players at the club capable of running set peices in "auto-pilot" because not only are we in a constant state of flux managerially, but the club has shafted recent managers with budget & player quality over recent years.

We need more height, pace, leadership, focus, unity, & familiarity.

It's been the case for years & all the club do is blame the manager, sack him, & in doing so keep enforcing some of those weaknesses. Time for someone to get the chance & backing to address it.

 

[Project Zeus]

A record two posts before a thread became about Mark Warburton

Jokes aside, we need taller players. The children we've hired will always struggle at the more physical aspects of the game - ie set pieces.

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[Liaminho]

Including Benny our average height for our defence after Toby went off was like what 5'10, 5'11? Obviously Benny brings it down but in this division it's not uncommon to be defending against attackers who are 6'4 plus.

We need more height and a summer of waterboarding to drill it into them.

 

[adam09]

It doesn’t matter how much you practice, if don’t have the height you will get beaten to the ball. Every team I’ve seen seems to have used it against us, especially targeting Fox/Traore/Osborn with diagonals, tall striker pulling onto Fox/Mancienne rather than Worrall/Toby etc. Very simple but effective tactic.