Set pieces

I think the OP has a point. We are not good at set peace kicks.

What we do about it is another matter……

Quoted from IlkleyMariner

I think the OP has a point. We are not good at set peace kicks.

What we do about it is another matter……

There will be few better opportunities to right that than against an Aaron Hayden-less Wrexham on Saturday.

Wrexham are almost the antithesis of the Bradford side we just faced; offensively virile but defensively hapless.

This line about only having defensive coaches isn't true.

Ben Davies spent the final years of his career at right-back.  Other than that he was a very attacking, creative midfielder operating either centrally or wide.  He also had a very, very sweet delivery from free-kicks.  We didn't get to see a lot of it but here's just one example of him doing so.  

1:20 in

It might be an age thing but what is a male masturbation biscuit ?

Quoted from grimsby pete

It might be an age thing but what is a male masturbation biscuit ?

It was the name given to a failed experiment by McVities when they tried to combine a chocolate bourbon, a ginger nut and a custard cream into one thing

If you don't understand the reference, Pete, you're really better off remaining in the dark!  

If I'm an ex-pro who played as a defender, e.g. Hurst, I should know how to set a team up to defend set pieces.

Conversely, I should also know what defenders hate at set pieces, and therefore use this knowledge to set a team up to attack set pieces.

I think it works both ways. Attacking ex-pros should know how to set up a team to defend by considering everything they hated coming up against during their playing days.

Original point still stands, which is that I think we could be much more effective from set pieces.

I do agree with an earlier post that says the higher up the leagues you go, the more obsolete set pieces become. Fewer goals are scored from set pieces in the PL than they are in the lower leagues.

However, we are the lower leagues, so we need to lean into this a bit. We're not gonna change the culture of L2 football by being the side that tries to score the vast majority of our goals from open play.

Players at this level are clumsy. They're going to give away silly free kicks 30-40 yards out. We know from Jordan Cropper that even throw-ins can be a source of goals.

I'm not asking us to become Wrexham. But in the Bradford game, taken as an 'average' game, we had at least four or five opportunities from free kicks alone (without 'playing' for them) to pop it into a good area and the execution was poor.

We shouldn't be a route one, set piece-dependent team. But when we're given free chances to put the ball into a good area, under no pressure, we should be better than what we are.

On the most basic of levels, a set-piece involves two elements.  The ability to put a ball into a dangerous area and the ability to get someone onto the end of that ball.  The less simpler elements and arguably those that make them more effective is the pace, trajectory etc. of the delivery then the positioning, stance, movement of the players in the mixer.  

I actually think our delivery at set-pieces has been ok this season. Which is a bit of a novelty because with the exception of an on loan Alex Hunt and then the one Danny Andrew season/Conor Townsend loans, our delivery has felt poor for a long, long time.  

But the issue as I see it is that we're static as hell in the box.  Watch the next game how we move at corners, largely we don't.  There's no anticipation or even an attempt at gambling on an outcome, it's all just reactionary static stuff.  Our success in the Conference on set-pieces came pretty much because Waterfall was just a beast at that level and teams couldn't cope with him.  With better defending that threat became less so and we've failed to provide a new threat.  

The defending is better at this level, but it's still not amazing.   A bit of movement and invention at set-pieces and I think sides would really struggle to cope.

I think the main factor is the lack of both Glennon and Hunt in the team who were the set piece taking experts. I personally feel their omission is justified BUT one of the downsides is the lack of set piece taking ability in those players in the first 11. Amos is simply not as good as Glennon at it. Gnouhah is not as good as hunt at it. Simple as that. We are a poorer team at set pieces with neither in the team, but better defensively in open play.

I actually think Gnahoua's deliveries from set-pieces are more consistent than anything from Hunt and Glennon.

The latter two perhaps have that one in five/six that are really good, but the rest tend to be poor. Gnahoua just seems to keep it simple and puts it in the dangerous area.