Set Pieces & Aquilani

[DeeTheDog]

Last night's friendly once again reminded me of that hoary old chestnut of set pieces and our inability to construct anything worthwhile from corners or free kicks. How many of the drawn games could have been turned into victories with quality delivery from a set-piece?

One of the strengths of Aquilani's game is good dead ball delivery, should we expect to see more from dead ball situations this season should he pass his medical? Or will it more of the same frustrating short corners and free kicks, barring the few times Aurelio will be fit.

[DannyMan2006]

Depends how well he does in training really.

[kris90210]

Nothing wrong with our delivery from corners - Gerrard takes a great corner. I just dont think we really have the targets in the box to capitalise from them. Torres apart of course. Saying that, Gerrard is bloody good in the air, so if Aquilani starts taking them I reckon we'd get a few more goals.

Have you seen that kid Bruna in the reserves? His free kicks are immense.

[Matt]

Nothing wrong with our delivery from corners - Gerrard takes a great corner. I just dont think we really have the targets in the box to capitalise from them. Torres apart of course. Saying that, Gerrard is bloody good in the air, so if Aquilani starts taking them I reckon we'd get a few more goals.

Have you seen that kid Bruna in the reserves? His free kicks are immense.

Gerrard's corners would be amazing if we could get someone to stand exactly where the first defender usually is.

[Roboklopp]

Our set pieces are woeful & have ben for years.

[Darkon]

Our set pieces are woeful & have ben for years.

We really need to up that! Havn't had a decent one since macallister

[Pablo]

Is he really a dead ball specialist though? From the youtube clips I dont remember ever seeing him score direct from a free kick.

[DeeTheDog]

Nothing wrong with our delivery from corners - Gerrard takes a great corner.

Are you being serious? Gerrard takes an awful corner, we haven't had good delivery from a corner since McAllister left. I think it was Stoke at home were we had something like 30 corners and not once did we threaten the goal, I remember we were trying to lay siege to the Stoke goal and their defenders were happy to kick the ball out.

[dww]

We don't take advantage of set pieces enough. Last season Gerrard and Aurelio seemed to get better at using freekicks. Possibly it's just about having a left and right footed option to best use different positions.

Corners have been horribly inconsistent and generally nonthreatening for ages. I think kris90210 has a point that part of this is about lack of targets but it is also a function of too many poor deliveries.

[Assassin]

Are you being serious? Gerrard takes an awful corner

Ed Zachery, he is Woeful

He would be more use in the penalty area, he presence would be enough to distract the defendes. The likes of Riera and Lucas should be taking corners, not Gerrard

[DeeTheDog]

He would be more use in the penalty area, he presence would be enough to distract the defendes. The likes of Riera and Lucas should be taking corners, not Gerrard

Lucas is actually very good in the air and takes up good positions within the box.

[Assassin]

Lucas is actually very good in the air and takes up good positions within the box.

I agree, but Lucas is also a has better delivery than Gerrard from deadball positions wide. If Gerrard stood in the box, he would get double marked leaving space for others

[Rich]

It's a real weakness - look at United with Vidic, Chelsea with Terry - they have players dangerous in the air for corners. Even if they don't score they put more pressure on the defending team, as firstly they'll be reluctant in losing a corner and so might make a mistake during play, and secondly they'll likely double team the dangerman, leaving more space elsewhere.

Ideally, we'd tell Gerrard not to go near corners. He'd be far better either loitering near the D for knock downs or ghosting in far post.

[Roboklopp]

Worse now the Legend Hyppia is gone.

[red g]

It's a real weakness - look at United with Vidic, Chelsea with Terry - they have players dangerous in the air for corners. Even if they don't score they put more pressure on the defending team, as firstly they'll be reluctant in losing a corner and so might make a mistake during play, and secondly they'll likely double team the dangerman, leaving more space elsewhere.

Ideally, we'd tell Gerrard not to go near corners. He'd be far better either loitering near the D for knock downs or ghosting in far post.

we had a team of giants a few years ago and did us little favours/