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bluesbrothers

Inviting Pressure From Set Pieces

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Wonderful start to the season, and I can't fault our tactics, except for one massive Achilles heel that puts my heart in my mouth every time it happens.

When we concede a set-piece at the moment, we pack the box with 10 blue shirts. It's perfectly effective when dealing with the first ball, and we've yet to really be troubled direct from a set-piece, Shrewsbury's free kick notwithstanding. But when we successfully clear the first ball, it ALWAYS drops to a rival player between the box and half way line. Our defensive line is broken as we fragment to deal with the new movement and the opposition invariably end up with an attempt on goal as a result. In the case of the Everton game, it was Baines picking up just such a ball that led to his strike and McGeady's goal.

 

I have the confidence in our defense to defend the first ball with 8 or 9 men as opposed to having everyone back. It still baffles me that we don't have someone with pace or a tendancy to harrass defenders on the half-way to come back and attack the ball as it falls to those players. Someone like Vardy would be perfect for this, but Nugent does that job excellently too. Keep the man out, let them fight for the second ball and then you may get a quick counter as a result. Carry on with this system from set-pieces and we will concede more poor goals, simple as that.

 

As I said, the team are playing brilliantly, but that strikes me as our one clear weakness at the moment.

 

:nigel:

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was discussed after everton. i noticed yesterday arsenal brought everyone back for our corners too. 

 

there was occasions that we left schlupp towards the left wing ready and waiting for kasper to collect it and start a break. i liked that tactic more than 11 men inside our box. 

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Set pieces were interesting yesterday, especially Arsenal's tactic of having everyone on the edge of the box running in, occasionally having Mertesacker in there, we didn't look troubled, but having Nugent covering the short one didn't really achieve much when they clearly weren't going to play it short. Ulloa in there was a massive help and I think we can afford to have someone a bit further up field to keep them honest.

 

As previously mentioned Arsenal defended in the same way and didn't suffer from it, the difference is that if we get the first clearance in and it drops to an Arsenal player in space, all of them can hit it from there.

 

I think the added aerial presence of Ulloa means we can leave someone up, he was a beast.

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Whilst so far, it does seem to have shored up our problems from last season, i can't help but think it does invite trouble from the 2nd ball.

I think ulloa helps out massively when coming back to defend, so why not leave, Marhez, Schlupp or Vardy up, how many headers are they really gonna win.

It also means they attacking team will leave at least 2 men back to cover. If I was a manager, I'd be brave enough to leave 2 up.

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