Set Pieces

[bobbyfallon]

i have posted a thread on this a while back as it does annoy me too.

for starters gerrard on the edge of the box or in it. good in the air and a great strike.

'INSWINGING' corners or set pieces have to be better. any sort of a touch and it stands a better chance of going in surely??? harder to defend against too???

very rarely do we swing them in with pace towards the goal

[tsb]

I never get my hopes up from corners at all. In my eyes, it's as good as giving the opposition a goal kick.

Gerrard should be on the edge of the box like Scholes ready to smash a loose ball through the scrambling defence. His delivery from the left is fine but you really need a left foot inswinger when taking corners from the right - it's terrible seeing our corners taken back to the halfway line before being hoofed back into the box!

[PTP]

With ref this, one particulary free kick frustrated me yesterday, i think it must have been late on cause i am sure reira was on the pitch - put we got a free kick on the right hand side, good position though about 35yds out maybe more so just too far to shoot, but gerrard went over to take it

My first thought was why do we not have a left footer over there. surely a left footer would be better suited as he would be whipping the ball in 'goal wards!" - as opposed to a right footer who is sending the ball away from the goal - i know from playing even at a **** amatuer level, that when defending i prefer to be facing an 'outswing' ball. usually even if you get just a little glance on the ball, as the ball is travelling a way from the goal to start with 9/10 a little glance or deflection will just take it further away

A whipped in inswinger though - but's u under a bit more pressure, makes u a bit more nervous, cause if u don't get it right, a little glance has more chance of going straight towards the goal.

[calvoboy]

Looking at the stats from last season, we were 8th in the Premiership in terms of goals scored from set-pieces. Not good enough, but not as bad as people think. Bolton (who most people think are great at set-pieces) only scored 9 goals, compared with our 12.

When Rafa came, I thought we got much better at free-kicks too. We have played some very inventive free-kicks over the last few seasons. I remember Alonso scoring one after a neat double pass when the defence was expecting a shot, and Agger's goal against Chelsea stands out in the memory too.

Too often though the quality of delivery is just not good enough from corners and wide free-kicks. With the likes of Gerrard, Alonso, Riera and Aurelio in the side we should be able to do much better. Similarly, would it kill either Gerrard or Alonso to practice shooting from direct free-kicks around the box a la Ronaldo, Lampard or even Danny Murphy? I'm sick of seeing us roll the ball a yard for a shot (which is charged down 99.9999999% of the time) EVERY bloody time we get one on the edge.

So I'd give us a 'C' grade on set-pieces. We're not doing as badly as it feels like we are, but by the same token we could be doing a whole lot better.

[andyhanrahan]

we seem to be as bad as when somebody swings in a cross , not enough people taking a chance and getting into the box, I know the standard of some of the crosses is abysmal notably Arebeloa and Babel but apart from gerrard and Torres nobody seems willing to take a chance.

[BFG]

It's hard to criticise Gerrard because the man's a truly awesome player for us but he shouldn't be jogging around the pitch to take every set piece. He should take some but as PTP says inswingers are much harder to defend when you're just chucking the ball in and hoping for the best which it appears is all we do.

I'd let Riera have a go at them, at least from the right hand side. His crosses are usually driven in at pace and I think while we're not getting much success from them at least defenders will have to worry about the pace he puts on the ball.

[DannyMan2006]

We had a little run this year we scored a few set pieces, but I do see why people are pissed off.

I think the main problem is that we only have Hyypia who seems to be any good at attacking a ball. Don't think the problem is really the delivery of the ball.

If Hyypia is on I fancy our chances to create a chance, without him I don't. Carra is hopeless, Skrtel and Agger aren't much better. Though Agger is good on the deck. Taking them away doen't leave a whole lot of options.

[dww]

It's hard to criticise Gerrard because the man's a truly awesome player for us but he shouldn't be jogging around the pitch to take every set piece. He should take some but as PTP says inswingers are much harder to defend when you're just chucking the ball in and hoping for the best which it appears is all we do.

I'd let Riera have a go at them, at least from the right hand side. His crosses are usually driven in at pace and I think while we're not getting much success from them at least defenders will have to worry about the pace he puts on the ball.

We had a little run this year we scored a few set pieces, but I do see why people are pissed off.

I think the main problem is that we only have Hyypia who seems to be any good at attacking a ball. Don't think the problem is really the delivery of the ball.

If Hyypia is on I fancy our chances to create a chance, without him I don't. Carra is hopeless, Skrtel and Agger aren't much better. Though Agger is good on the deck. Taking them away doen't leave a whole lot of options.

I think a lot of it has to do with confidence in the team. When we were playing better the likes of Kuyt were willing to take the corners now it seems that Gerrard is the only one really keen to do the job an he is not always the best choice - if for no other reason than he is one of our bigger dangers on the end of the set piece.

[Exiled_red]

I agree with alot of people in that Gerrard shouldn't take corners, he has a good long range shot and is good in the air, so should either be on the edge of the box or in the box attacking the ball. I think the idea about inswinging corners is a good one as long as they're not straight into the keepers hands. I also notice we take alot of short corners which hardly ever work.

As for free kicks we are too predictable we always shift the ball a yard or so which means it gets closed down if we're shifting the ball I'd like to see it shifted 5-10 yards which takes out the chargers. Alternatively having someone running over the ball and playing it to them IMO this is an under used tactic as opposition teams rarely worry about a man who is initially standing over the ball, or when they do it tends to take a player off the end of the wall making a shot on goal easier. Something like that shows a level of imagination

[Joe King]

Great stat for all you zonal marking fiends:

Five in the last eight goals conceded are from set pieces.

[-V-]

Gareth Barry would have sorted all our set-pieces

[Shanks]

FAO Craig_H.