opposition corners

[savillefoxes]

On the way home from the game one of the main things in our car we discussed was why the bloodyhell was Nugent stuck on the edge of the box he had no man to mark. So I assume he was trying to prevent the kick from being swung in low, if they had tried that tactic with the first one then maybe put him there. But surely he would have been better staying up front and if he was I'm sure he would have picked the ball up to maybe have prevented Everton playing the ball back in the box for the first goal. I know we are renowned for bringing rveryone back but all in our car thought he was wasted in that position or are we missing something. Thoughts please people.

[Harry - LCFC]

Something I didn't like was how slow we were to get out. It wasn't that the players were being lazy it's that they were all in the box. If we'd had men just outside the area Baines might not have got his shot in that lead to their first. Would've been harder for them to recycle the ball on other occasions too.

[savillefoxes]

Have to agree with you Harry. On a whole though you can't fault them for the way they came back. But just the little things that we have said can cost you big time in the prem. Only one game so lets hope we can learn from those things

[bluesbrothers]

Do think that it's a waste, especially when playing in a fairly route one fashion as we did yesterday for long periods, not to leave someone with the ability to run like Nugent further forward to launch a counter attack. I remember that great goal against Derby when he did exactly that - great first touch on the halfway and ran half the length of the pitch to slot home.

 

On the flipside, I am absolutely chuffed that we ourselves are finally looking dangerous at corners again! Ulloa.

[savillefoxes]

At the edge along the side of the box Blues yes a total waste.

[broughtonblue]

Absolutely hate it when we bring everyone back, only one outcome if we clear it, it's coming back!!

Sven used to go this but thought Pearson had stopped it

[lgfualol]

For the first time in a while I was confident one of our defenders would get a head to one of their corners. Morgan and Moore were absolutely superb.

[Mark_w]

I thought we dealt with Everton set pieces a lot better than we did most of last year.

[Grewks]

I thought we defended set pieces very well yesterday, far better than they did at least.

 

 

What i learned from yesterday is that players who i thought would physical (barry, jagielka, distin) were surprisingly weak.

[ScouseFox]

I thought we dealt with Everton set pieces a lot better than we did most of last year.

Yeah from the original ball in we did. Can't remember an obvious free header for a striker, there used to be 3 or 4 a game last year.

Second ball was a bit of an issue yesterday but hopefully one that's easy to resolve by telling someone like mahrez, who probably isn't marking or winning headers, to stand on the edge of the D or even a bit further out so it doesn't just come straight back.

[maddog]

We must leave a man up on the half way line or at least in between the box and half way to challenge for the ball when we clear it.

 

It completely cost us a goal yesterday and almost a second, Pearson's tactics of sending everyone back.

 

What wound me up was the fact he didn't adapt and change it when it kept happening throughout the game - we were being put at risk.

 

Everton would leave an extra back if we left one up so it makes no difference in terms of number of players defending/attacking the cross from the corner.

 

I'm adamant had Pearson left 1 man up like Everton were doing all match for our corners, then Everton would not have scored their 1st goal and the final result may have been totally different. Sorry NP but you are to blame solely there with your instructions to the players to all go back.

 

But I'm sure Pearson will watch the tapes this week and realise, I can only think he simply didn't notice it from the touchline because it was plain to see what was happening all game from sitting behind the goal in the Kop.

 

If we continue to leave everyone back and effectively have to clear every corner 'twice', with the quality of delivery from our opponents (Everton were awesome at crossing yesterday), then we are going to concede a goal from a corner pretty much every game which will/could severely hamper our season.

 

It's a simple basic tactic not rocket science, leave 1 man up to challenge when we clear the corner, otherwise it will just come straight back in! As it did yesterday when Everton scored their first. And it almost happened a second time, had Everton put that away and gone 2-0 we would have been fooked.

 

I believe in Pearson to change this approach at defending corners, I sure hope he does!

[StanSP]

Thought overall we did defend them very well. It was the fact we barely left anyone up which slightly annoyed me. It 100% guarantees an option for the opposition to lump it back in and keep pressure on. There was one time where Mahrez was left up in the middle of our half and it stopped them pumping it back up. Even if it was someone like Mahrez/Knockaert left up it would have stopped Baines getting that shot in and leading to the goal.

 

But anyway, it's a minor point out of yesterday and easily rectified for future. In general we defended them well especially with the kind of players they have.

[Gary Eatfood]

We must leave a man up on the half way line or at least in between the box and half way to challenge for the ball when we clear it.

 

It completely cost us a goal yesterday and almost a second, Pearson's tactics of sending everyone back.

 

What wound me up was the fact he didn't adapt and change it when it kept happening throughout the game - we were being put at risk.

 

Everton would leave an extra back if we left one up so it makes no difference in terms of number of players defending/attacking the cross from the corner.

 

I'm adamant had Pearson left 1 man up like Everton were doing all match for our corners, then Everton would not have scored their 1st goal and the final result may have been totally different. Sorry NP but you are to blame solely there with your instructions to the players to all go back.

 

But I'm sure Pearson will watch the tapes this week and realise, I can only think he simply didn't notice it from the touchline because it was plain to see what was happening all game from sitting behind the goal in the Kop.

 

If we continue to leave everyone back and effectively have to clear every corner 'twice', with the quality of delivery from our opponents (Everton were awesome at crossing yesterday), then we are going to concede a goal from a corner pretty much every game which will/could severely hamper our season.

 

It's a simple basic tactic not rocket science, leave 1 man up to challenge when we clear the corner, otherwise it will just come straight back in! As it did yesterday when Everton scored their first. And it almost happened a second time, had Everton put that away and gone 2-0 we would have been fooked.

 

I believe in Pearson to change this approach at defending corners, I sure hope he does!

 

Nope, they brought everyone back for our corners too. It doesn't make any sense, leave a striker up and two defenders have to come back or you're taking a risk.

[savillefoxes]

But why was Nugent where he was? Just a pointless position.

[sdb]

Absolutely hate it when we bring everyone back, only one outcome if we clear it, it's coming back!!

Sven used to go this but thought Pearson had stopped it

Exactly. We invited so much pressure on defending set plays yesterday. Good that we've hopefully stopped conceding first phase, but very short sited way of doing so. It will continue to punish us if we have no outlet at all!

[Gary Eatfood]

Exactly. We invited so much pressure on defending set plays yesterday. Good that we've hopefully stopped conceding first phase, but very short sited way of doing so. It will continue to punish us if we have no outlet at all!

 

This didn't just start yesterday, we were doing it last season too. In fact, most teams do it nowadays when defending corners.

[TheLeftSide]

Pearson obviously did the homework on their corners and it stopped them driving it on low which can be quite dangerous if it's something they work on I'm training. I would not expect to see that every match.

[volpeazzurro]

I commented about this during and after the Werder Bremen game to friends. Both then and yesterday we appeared very much improved defending corners with the exception of bringing everybody back into our on box. If headed out there's only one thing going to happen and that's come straight back. Leave just one fairly quick player up towards the halfway line and you can bet that the opposition will use at least 1 man or 2 to counter him. Anyone on the outskirts of our box needs to get out a lot quicker than they did yesterday as well as has been mentioned. All in all though, much improved defensively particularly Morgan and Moore who were superb. De laet, although coming in for some criticism was left exposed at times and on his own he couldn't be expected to cope with the excellent interplay at time by Pinaar, Baines and McGeedy or Naysmith.Konchesky was also fairly solid and made some good tackles and looked very fit for a first game!  Everton are a very good side and will improve further, we can as well and will.

[Guest ttfn]

This didn't just start yesterday, we were doing it last season too. In fact, most teams do it nowadays when defending corners.

I understand peoples' frustrations but there is a reason that this has become the prevailing tactic nowadays.

 

For a side like ours which has really struggled at defending set pieces, the key is to defend the first ball. Having an extra man in there protecting against the ball into the front post helps ensure that.

 

Babylon mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it looked like we'd shifted to a more zonal system. Certainly in the first half I noticed that Drinkwater was the nearest man to Lukaku which looked a bit odd, but presumably it was because Drinkwater was guarding the area Lukaku was running from, rather than Lukaku himself.

[Carlos88LCFC]

We must leave a man up on the half way line or at least in between the box and half way to challenge for the ball when we clear it.

It completely cost us a goal yesterday and almost a second, Pearson's tactics of sending everyone back.

What wound me up was the fact he didn't adapt and change it when it kept happening throughout the game - we were being put at risk.

Everton would leave an extra back if we left one up so it makes no difference in terms of number of players defending/attacking the cross from the corner.

I'm adamant had Pearson left 1 man up like Everton were doing all match for our corners, then Everton would not have scored their 1st goal and the final result may have been totally different. Sorry NP but you are to blame solely there with your instructions to the players to all go back.

But I'm sure Pearson will watch the tapes this week and realise, I can only think he simply didn't notice it from the touchline because it was plain to see what was happening all game from sitting behind the goal in the Kop.

If we continue to leave everyone back and effectively have to clear every corner 'twice', with the quality of delivery from our opponents (Everton were awesome at crossing yesterday), then we are going to concede a goal from a corner pretty much every game which will/could severely hamper our season.

It's a simple basic tactic not rocket science, leave 1 man up to challenge when we clear the corner, otherwise it will just come straight back in! As it did yesterday when Everton scored their first. And it almost happened a second time, had Everton put that away and gone 2-0 we would have been fooked.

I believe in Pearson to change this approach at defending corners, I sure hope he does!

Pearson out.

[Bettsj2]

Sheesh. Guys you cannot totally eradicate a chance being created against you.

They've worked on how they can be more solid from set pieces and this is it. Yes it gives the opposition the choice of lumping it back but if you're solid in the first instance it won't matter.

Neither goal were particularly badly defended, it seems to me a bit of nitpicking to bring this up.

[Gary Eatfood]

Sheesh. Guys you cannot totally eradicate a chance being created against you.

They've worked on how they can be more solid from set pieces and this is it. Yes it gives the opposition the choice of lumping it back but if you're solid in the first instance it won't matter.

Neither goal were particularly badly defended, it seems to me a bit of nitpicking to bring this up.

 

Not really nitpicking, for instance, what would be the harm in leaving Mahrez up front and making them bring a couple back??

 

Does Mahrez contribute much to us defending a set-piece?

[ousefox]

Didn't like Everton having a completely unmarked player on the edge of the box from every corner.

[StanSP]

Didn't like Everton having a completely unmarked player on the edge of the box from every corner.

 

More than one, sometimes, too. 

[Stadt]

Dyer usually was quite high up in our own half at corners last season, but if the extra man means we're conceding less than I'm all for it.