Aerial ability?

[adejo92]

We had 12 corners today against Wolves but it would have taken a miracle to have scored from any given one of them. (admittedly quality of delivery is routinely poor) 

 

Corner kicks are such a great avenue for bagging goals however I fear for our aerial ability in this squad in both attacking and defending corner kicks. I can't see any of our players, other than Big Wes if ever he plays, scoring from a corner other than perhaps a goal line scramble. I also think that we could be vulnerable when defending corners and I think corners in general could be an Achilles heel this season.

 

Our Ariel strength in both attack and defence likely comes from the 4 names below, albeit Praet likely not to be regularly starting.

 

Soyuncu - 185CM

Evans - 188CM

Ndidi - 183CM

Praet - 181CM

 

In both attack and defence against teams such as....

 

Arsenal

 

Luiz - 189CM

Aubameyang - 187CM

Xhaka - 185CM

Mustafi - 184CM

Kolasinac - 183CM

 

Burnley

 

Tarkowski - 185CM

Rodriguez - 185CM

Barnes - 186CM

 

Chelsea

 

Rudiger - 190CM

Alonso - 188CM

Christensen - 188CM

Loftus Cheek - 191CM

Giroud - 192CM

 

(Just the first 3 random teams I picked)

 

Whilst I know height stats alone don't prove or disprove aerial ability - the players mentioned are generally physically and aerially strong as well as their height.

 

I am that guy that manages to get Manchester City relegated on football manager so by no means believe I am a master tactician or competition for Rodgers job.

 

I just think that aerial ability could be a real issue this season - Does any one have similar thoughts or opposing thoughts that could fulfil my confidence?

 

[StanSP]

4 minutes ago, adejo92 said:

I am that guy that manages to get Manchester City relegated on football manager

Not to ignore any of your points but that's a pretty impressive feat  

[adejo92]

Just now, StanSP said:

Not to ignore any of your points but that's a pretty impressive feat  

 

It was a bad year for injuries, alright! cut me some slack.

[sdb]

Definitely more worried about us defending them than I am excited about us attacking them. We do have a team lacking aerial prowess. Bar our centre halves it's only really Chillwell and Ndidi that ever win any.

[Guest An Sionnach]

See my thread A Small Team. More of an attacking rather than defensive problem today but I think it will need to addressed.

[Izzy]

Centimetres mean Fvck all to me. Need it in feet and inches please!

[Blanchflower78]

Ridiculous today, not one threatened and Wolves seemed quite comfortable in conceding them. We arent a big side and as such will have less ambition in this area but we need to think of other ways of affecting a corner situation in our favour as direct balls in every occasion will not bring any more reward.

[blueharmie]

We just sold a good Ariel threat. We don't impose on corners , certainly not judging by today. Something for BR to look at for sure.

[adejo92]

2 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Centimetres mean Fvck all to me. Need it in feet and inches please!

 

My hard work for today is done and I am not very good at maths and conversions so I will translate in pictures.

 

We are the little guy.

[RumbleFox]

19 minutes ago, adejo92 said:

We had 12 corners today against Wolves but it would have taken a miracle to have scored from any given one of them. (admittedly quality of delivery is routinely poor) 

 

Corner kicks are such a great avenue for bagging goals however I fear for our aerial ability in this squad in both attacking and defending corner kicks. I can't see any of our players, other than Big Wes if ever he plays, scoring from a corner other than perhaps a goal line scramble. I also think that we could be vulnerable when defending corners and I think corners in general could be an Achilles heel this season.

 

Our Ariel strength in both attack and defence likely comes from the 4 names below, albeit Praet likely not to be regularly starting.

 

Soyuncu - 185CM

Evans - 188CM

Ndidi - 183CM

Praet - 181CM

 

In both attack and defence against teams such as....

 

Arsenal

 

Luiz - 189CM

Aubameyang - 187CM

Xhaka - 185CM

Mustafi - 184CM

Kolasinac - 183CM

 

Burnley

 

Tarkowski - 185CM

Rodriguez - 185CM

Barnes - 186CM

 

Chelsea

 

Rudiger - 190CM

Alonso - 188CM

Christensen - 188CM

Loftus Cheek - 191CM

Giroud - 192CM

 

(Just the first 3 random teams I picked)

 

Whilst I know height stats alone don't prove or disprove aerial ability - the players mentioned are generally physically and aerially strong as well as their height.

 

I am that guy that manages to get Manchester City relegated on football manager so by no means believe I am a master tactician or competition for Rodgers job.

 

I just think that aerial ability could be a real issue this season - Does any one have similar thoughts or opposing thoughts that could fulfil my confidence?

 

I'm just not sure that's true. We may or may not suffer by not being the tallest side (I honestly don't think there is a correlation between height and performance but I may be wrong) but I think all reliable data shows that corners are not "a great avenue for bagging goals". I think most studies show that about 1% of corners are scored. Of course we should do all we can to be as good at them as possible but it's not of major concern to me. As pointed out in a recent thread, Man City were the shortest side last season and Liverpool 5th shortest. The tallest I believe were relegated (Huddersfield).  Again, of course we should attempt to make the most of corners but they have been shown to be, empirically, not very threatening in terms of how many result in goals. I think we think we are bad at them because we don't focus on other team's corners, only our own. We are about as good at them as every other team. X 

[Heart-Shaped Fox]

We've always been a smaller team at the back in recent years. 

 

Haven't threatened from set pieces all that much and really struggled defensively against them for a while. 

 

 

[dayday]

Even our free kicks were poor

[Bezzanator89]

We did go through a noticeably long period without posing any threat from corners/set-pieces. There was even a growing chant emerging at the time to highlight this... The arrival of the imposing figure of Harry Maguire put this to bed for a season or two. That sort of presence in both boxes will be missed. But hopefully not too much.

[the fox]

I actually thought that we were very impressive when it came to aerial duels. We got the best of those interactions and we had a very obvious physical presence from what I saw. 

 

As for corners, the team can work to improve them. But Even the teams with a great ability to score from corners barely get 1 goal every 3 or 4 games in a PL.

[davieG]

I believe we had the best record last season for defending set pieces, yeah I was surprised to read that (can’t remember where) I’m sure it wasn’t all down to Maguire although it obviously helped.

 

As for own corners Madders has not impressed, I’m not sure why we stick with just  him taking them even Chilwell took some for England.

[UniFox21]

Delivery of set piece was more important the our height. Maybe 1 or 2 of our set pieces went into a dangerous position, the rest were either too far back or not beating the first man.

 

[Ashley]

Why did it take our one but last/potentially last corner for Youri to be Chilwells ear telling him to get around at the back post because that's where our corners were going? 

[RumbleFox]

Just to edit my own post.....

 

Just done a bit more research and in the Primmer League since 2000, a corner has resulted in a goal 3.1% of the time.  In this same period, 40% of corners have not cleared the first man.  Statistically they are the least likely set piece to lead to a goal.  As I said, none of this means that we should not attempt to be good at them but I think there is a genuine misconception amongst fans as to how likely a team is to score from a corner (or even beat the first man).  Only 7% of all corners since 2000 have ended up with a shot on target.

 

That 3.1% is also an "indirect goal attempt" from a corner.  In terms of goals scored on the first touch directly from a corner the figure is the one I quoted in my first post, about 1%.  In most seasons in the PL only about 5 corners have been scored by the team with the most corner goals.  The average seems to be 3 or 4.

 

It is also interesting to note that since 2000 the "short corner" has lead to more goals, more shots and more shots on target than the traditional long corner even though a lot of fans seem to groan at the short corner.

 

(Thank you TIFO Football for the stats).

[Guest An Sionnach]

Direct headed goals are rare but big men cause defensive mistakes , the ball drops and gets forced over the line , happens all the time.

[TonyN11]

19 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Centimetres mean Fvck all to me. Need it in feet and inches please!

Totally agree with this, I'm using a dating app and I think I've got a date next week with the one on the right below....

 

 

[RumbleFox]

3 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

Direct headed goals are rare but big men cause defensive mistakes , the ball drops and gets forced over the line , happens all the time.

Are you talking about out on corners or in general?

[Guest An Sionnach]

Any set pieces even throw ins by Fuchs.

[RumbleFox]

6 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

Any set pieces even throw ins by Fuchs.

Do you have the stats to show this?  All scientific studies have shown there is 0 correlation between height and performance in football.  X

[Pliskin]

47 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Not to ignore any of your points but that's a pretty impressive feat  

Perhaps it was his short defence? 

[Ric Flair]

There were two goal mouth scrambles from set pieces today that we ought to have done better with, this might be where we miss Maguire but I've always thought Ndidi is dangerous from corners and free kicks if he times his movement right. Jonny Evans always seems to miss sitters.