How do we solve our set piece issue and which signing this summer is the most important?

[Ric Flair]

3 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

But it's not about being the best, if we were average this season at them, we finish top 6th

True. I think we conceded 4 in 12 games they played together in all competitions. A bit better than about 1 in 2 games on average without them 😂

[mozartfox]

Get Huth in as defensive Coach.  Also need new goal keeping Coach.   All gone stale and needs a refresh.

[Paninistickers]

I remember both Ulloa and Ibiorra were excellent at heading clear at the near six yard corner. 

 

I'm.a huge Kasper fan and loyalist, but undoubtedly the problems stem from him being unwilling/unable to command his 6 yard box. Change keeper  and we'd be 6 or 7 goals better off. The great conundrum is, kasper makes match winning saves to the tune of 6 or 7 games per season. The Lord giveth, the Lord take away.

[Ric Flair]

I also want us to become lethal at scoring set pieces, all the successful sides tend to be strong at both. To think how close we'd be to the top 4/6 if we just sorted this issue is what makes it even more galling.

[Shane]

3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I also want us to become lethal at scoring set pieces, all the successful sides tend to be strong at both. To think how close we'd be to the top 4/6 if we just sorted this issue is what makes it even more galling.

We don’t really have a set piece specialist do we? Maddison is good at direct free kicks in shooting range but for the most part our delivery is quite poor. 
 

Gustavo Hamer is a good free kick/corner taker. 

[fuchsntf]

Replace all the defence coaches..

Because they didn't do their job all season.

 

Owners should pay them off, & not give

4 yr contracts...Save money & bring in

Yeovil coaches..

 

[UHDrive]

Throwing my two pennies in. 

 

It's as much a psychological aspect as is the quality of the defender. Problems are.

 

No.1. Goalkeeper. Authority.

No 2. Defenders. Authority. Even Evans needs to be more vocal if he's our dep captain. 

No 3. Sell soyuncu and vestegaard and replace one decent perm player and maybe 1 experienced I.e. Tarkowski on rolling contract. 

No 4. Bodies on posts.

No 5. Wing backs marking opposition wingers. 

 

Most important player is tielemans when he's sold. But not a like for like. Tielemans has benefitted from space by sitting back a lot during matches with our wingers and strikers already attacking their areas. We need an advanced cam player who can operate in forward areas and in particular that that player keeps the team on the front foot and as high up the pitch as possible. For me this would allow to keep Maddison in the final third where he's better positioned and to buy Tielemans replacement as an all rounder cam.

[cityfanlee23]

Stealing everyone elses ideas here but Pearce and Huth would be a hell of a shout. 

[Clever Fox]

I cant be sure Brendan is the right man to spend a lot of money given his previous record here. Not only that though, his insistence in playing players out of position instead of signing players to do the job required. 

• like others, I wouldn't be disappointed if Kasper was to go, provided we signed a commanding Goalkeeper.

We definitely need to beef up the team, particularly in Defense and Midfield.

I'd sign a CB and a left back and let Thomas go out on loan.

A mobile tall midfielder to play alongside NDiddi.

A right winger obviously and an aggressive CF. 

 

That's 6 in and about 10 out.

[Guy]

10 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

As we go and lay down in a dark room and all take sleeping tablets so that we sleep a dreamless sleep and not have to relive our set piece nightmares over and over this summer, one question hangs over my head when I'm awake.

 

How does Brendan Rodgers solve our chronic set piece issue? Is it simply a coaching correction either by him and his current coaches, or by seeking expert help to come in as a defensive/set piece coach (defence and attack) and improve us?

 

Or do we also need better defenders of set pieces? If it's the latter, the real issue is how do we do that because you don't tend to just buy players who can get their head on a set piece. I look through our team at what we need to bring in in the summer and accepting that a new CB will play with Fofana when Evans doesn't play, the only other starting XI improvements are likely to be to replace Tielemans and at right wing. Is that going to be enough? Are we going to have to buy a Sander Berge / Kephran Thuram / Manu Kone who at 6ft 4 can provide us that help in central midfield? I think that has to be the answer. We're not going to change too many other players at full back, midfield or attack so I hope that's the sort of midfield replacement we see for Tielemans, even though I'd love us to get Kokcu it might not be as beneficial to our team.

 

Set pieces and injuries are our biggest weakness from challenging for the top 6, yes we need to keep progressing elsewhere and creating and scoring goals and the right wing position remains our number 1 priority as the Soyuncu and Tielemans replacements happen when we are in a position to do so. 

 

I really hope he sorts it this summer but it's by no means a guarantee he will, its as precarious as the rebuild is.

I hope it is just a curse of this past season alone as it never bothered us in the previous two and a half seasons under BR's tenure really. A lot of it was most likely attributed to this past season's chronic defensive injury list....re Fofana and Evans missing for the lion's share of it - and it may all be a distant memory of a shortcoming come next season. We live in hope!  

Edited 28 May 2022 by Guy

[sacreblueits442]

25 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Stealing everyone elses ideas here but Pearce and Huth would be a hell of a shout. 

....I thought Huth no longer wanted anything to do with the game!!!

Pearce is still very much in the game and you wonder why he has left his recent post. We have a lot of talent around this club of players who have played in our backline in the past and we could look to use their knowledge.

  If we have to bring a Coach in, bring back Shakey!

[fuchsntf]

23 minutes ago, Clever Fox said:

I cant be sure Brendan is the right man to spend a lot of money given his previous record here. Not only that though, his insistence in playing players out of position instead of signing players to do the job required. 

• like others, I wouldn't be disappointed if Kasper was to go, provided we signed a commanding Goalkeeper.

We definitely need to beef up the team, particularly in Defense and Midfield.

I'd sign a CB and a left back and let Thomas go out on loan.

A mobile tall midfielder to play alongside NDiddi.

A right winger obviously and an aggressive CF. 

 

That's 6 in and about 10 out.

Kasper..was on Danish radio...

And he declared he wants to Stay to carry on his Not Coming out for crosses legacy, just to pss off all the FT-forum fans...

Edited 28 May 2022 by fuchsntf

[Aus Fox]

Attacking is simply we don’t attack the ball, it’s been that way for years.

We do have some brilliant crossers of a ball Maddison, KDH and Albrighton know how to deliver a set piece, but we simply don’t have the players to attack the ball.

At the back it’s a mentality thing, we seem to expect to concede from them now. A dominant CB like Huth would certainly help, but, we need to go through preseason without conceding and slowly banish the memories of this season.

 

Don’t underestimate the importance of a settled back line too, this season we’ve had 14 different players that I can count play in our back line. That does not help at all, when you think back to the league winning season that was maybe 6. Players when it’s settled need to know who is doing what job, after a few games together you don’t even think about it. But when it chops and changes every week no one knows where anyone is supposed to be.

[MPH]

14 hours ago, winteriscoming said:

Get rid of Kolo. Clearly he’s doing nothing to solve the defensive set piece issues. Bring in Stuart Pearce. Just left West Ham. 
Also wouldn’t be disappointed if Kasper went. I’d like us to go for Pope at Burnley. 

 

kolo is not our  defensive set piece coach.

[Guest454545]

3 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

Attacking is simply we don’t attack the ball, it’s been that way for years.

We do have some brilliant crossers of a ball Maddison, KDH and Albrighton know how to deliver a set piece, but we simply don’t have the players to attack the ball.

At the back it’s a mentality thing, we seem to expect to concede from them now. A dominant CB like Huth would certainly help, but, we need to go through preseason without conceding and slowly banish the memories of this season.

 

Don’t underestimate the importance of a settled back line too, this season we’ve had 14 different players that I can count play in our back line. That does not help at all, when you think back to the league winning season that was maybe 6. Players when it’s settled need to know who is doing what job, after a few games together you don’t even think about it. But when it chops and changes every week no one knows where anyone is supposed to be.

If you look at the numbers, I think you are the worst team for crossing accuracy. It might be corner accuracy. It's one of them. But your accuracy is something like 27% for one of them, and the average is 45% 

[Scotch]

I like Austin Mcphee as a setpiece coach. He's done a modest job at Villa but a great job at Scotland. 

[Ric Flair]

43 minutes ago, Scotch said:

I like Austin Mcphee as a setpiece coach. He's done a modest job at Villa but a great job at Scotland. 

Allan Russell who's at Aberdeen and was previously with England under Southgate for 4 years ought to be gettable. I read he only left England because he had some court misdemeanour or something.

[Ric Flair]

10 hours ago, Guy said:

I hope it is just a curse of this past season alone as it never bothered us in the previous two and a half seasons under BR's tenure really. A lot of it was most likely attributed to this past season's chronic defensive injury list....re Fofana and Evans missing for the lion's share of it - and it may all be a distant memory of a shortcoming come next season. We live in hope!  

It became an issue in 2020/21 to be honest, certainly compared to previous years and has gotten a lot lot worse!!

[winteriscoming]

5 hours ago, MPH said:

 

kolo is not our  defensive set piece coach.

Ok. But as a former cb he should have some sort of input into what we are doing defensively. Otherwise what does he do. 

[Aus Fox]

4 hours ago, Guest454545 said:

If you look at the numbers, I think you are the worst team for crossing accuracy. It might be corner accuracy. It's one of them. But your accuracy is something like 27% for one of them, and the average is 45% 

That’s not solely on the crosser though, I lost count last year, particularly when Vardy was out, when the ball was put into the right area but no one gambles or attacks the ball. 

[Aus Fox]

17 minutes ago, winteriscoming said:

Ok. But as a former cb he should have some sort of input into what we are doing defensively. Otherwise what does he do. 

Just because he used to play CB, does not mean it’s his role now.

 It may well be, but does anyone actually know who is responsible for what? 

[JimmyC74]

22 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

As we go and lay down in a dark room and all take sleeping tablets so that we sleep a dreamless sleep and not have to relive our set piece nightmares over and over this summer, one question hangs over my head when I'm awake.

 

How does Brendan Rodgers solve our chronic set piece issue? Is it simply a coaching correction either by him and his current coaches, or by seeking expert help to come in as a defensive/set piece coach (defence and attack) and improve us?

 

Or do we also need better defenders of set pieces? If it's the latter, the real issue is how do we do that because you don't tend to just buy players who can get their head on a set piece. I look through our team at what we need to bring in in the summer and accepting that a new CB will play with Fofana when Evans doesn't play, the only other starting XI improvements are likely to be to replace Tielemans and at right wing. Is that going to be enough? Are we going to have to buy a Sander Berge / Kephran Thuram / Manu Kone who at 6ft 4 can provide us that help in central midfield? I think that has to be the answer. We're not going to change too many other players at full back, midfield or attack so I hope that's the sort of midfield replacement we see for Tielemans, even though I'd love us to get Kokcu it might not be as beneficial to our team.

 

Set pieces and injuries are our biggest weakness from challenging for the top 6, yes we need to keep progressing elsewhere and creating and scoring goals and the right wing position remains our number 1 priority as the Soyuncu and Tielemans replacements happen when we are in a position to do so. 

 

I really hope he sorts it this summer but it's by no means a guarantee he will, its as precarious as the rebuild is.

I agree that we are unlikely to see a significant change in FB and CB areas. Even if we bring someone in like Colwill at CB they will be under the wing of Evans and be gradually phased in so we will be much the same.

 

I would be inclined to go for Pope as No.1 GK and look at bringing in a defensive coach. That said I don’t know Brendan will do either. 
 

Adding a new tall, physical CM and the return of NDidi would also help but without Kasper commanding his 6-yard area and us upgrading our defensive organisation then we could still be suspect.

[Ric Flair]

11 minutes ago, JimmyC74 said:

I agree that we are unlikely to see a significant change in FB and CB areas. Even if we bring someone in like Colwill at CB they will be under the wing of Evans and be gradually phased in so we will be much the same.

 

I would be inclined to go for Pope as No.1 GK and look at bringing in a defensive coach. That said I don’t know Brendan will do either. 
 

Adding a new tall, physical CM and the return of NDidi would also help but without Kasper commanding his 6-yard area and us upgrading our defensive organisation then we could still be suspect.

Agreed, although we will miss many aspects of him when he's gone, it would make Brendans life much easier if Kasper made the decision to leave rather than the club. If he said he wanted to go this summer (doubt he'd give up a year of £150k a week) then we'd have a real opportunity to correct all aspects of this issue. If he stays then we'll have to be exemplary at commanding the 6 yard box and penalty spot area at set pieces which needs more than 2 decent centre halves in the air.

[Ginger_Filbert]

19 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

More aggressive players that want to throw themselves at the ball. 

 

Our soft underbelly has been a weakness for years now.

Pretty much this, a keeper that will command his area and come out and take the ball more. 

[MPH]

1 hour ago, winteriscoming said:

Ok. But as a former cb he should have some sort of input into what we are doing defensively. Otherwise what does he do. 

 

just saying that those are two separate roles.. the set piece coach and the defensive coach. set pieces are all being done by Mike Stowell, I think.