Defending Corners was abysmally bad

Colin Warnek

Colin Warnek

Well-known member
11 men in the box, Cov left 3 around the edge unattended for every one.

Crowded 6 yard area, great save the ball comes out, the Cov man on the edge smashes it home.

Have we always defended corners under Carrick & Woodgate like yesterday? We just invited further attacks when we half-cleared the ball.
 
I posted on a thread last week about this. But we have definitely been defending like this all this season. The CBs don't pick up men, they defend zones on the edge of the 6 yard box. We then usually go man for man with the 4 or 5 runners. Everyone around the edge of the box gets left unmarked. No men on the posts.

Against Hull they ran their big CB to win the flick on at the front post against Latte. This week they sent their big CB to attack the front post against Barlaser and win the flick on.

It's p1ss poor. The same thing happening over and over again.

We are pretty small and lightweight as a team anyway so will struggle defending set pieces but we aren't helping things with the way we are organising it.
 
Colin Warnek said:
If a team leaves 3 men on the edge surely it's logical not to leave them all free whilst your entire team is behind the penalty spot.
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Or you could argue we need the extra men in the box to double up on the cov players who are better in the air than ours? Cant always go man to man.

Players on the edge of the box are for the loose ball from the second contact. If you've already lost the first contact, the ball could already be in the back of the net!
 
How many of the goals we have conceded come from corners?

(Honest question, I don't know)

We are a small team and as far as I know we don't have any towering giants in the U21s.
 
Engel made the most basic error a defender can make - you never place a defensive clearance straight out in front of goal, it should be towards the touch line. He just basically teed up the Coventry player for a free shot
 
Alan_Breck said:
I think I counted 10 Barlaser corners for us in the first half. We're hopeless at set pieces.

#UTB
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Goalkicks - we play it short to draw people onto us
Kick offs - are played short, we don't "do a Burnley" & create an overload & lump it up to an area
Throw ins - to feet & back to the thrower, no Stoke/Pulis long throw into the box for us

Corners? - nice floaters onto the edge of the 6 yard box for the keeper to catch

Yes, I am arguing that we should play our corners short with 2 men by the quadrant & another at the corner of the box. At the least it would draw out 2 or 3 players out of the box & create more space for the CBs/Coburn to attack.
 
The Disciple said:
Engel made the most basic error a defender can make - you never place a defensive clearance straight out in front of goal, it should be towards the touch line. He just basically teed up the Coventry player for a free shot
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His decision making in and around his own area is terrifying to be honest. He needs to improve in this area hugely. As going forward he’s ok
 
It might just be me, but I feel like we concede a lot of goals struck between the penalty spot and edge of the box, not so much on corners but when the opposition attack at pace and make the cross when in line with the edge of the box, then hit first time in the hope that we've missed that zone. That's opposed to stopping it dead in the corner like we do and let the other team mark up in a gentlemanly fashion.
 
The Disciple said:
Engel made the most basic error a defender can make - you never place a defensive clearance straight out in front of goal, it should be towards the touch line. He just basically teed up the Coventry player for a free shot
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I think that's a bit harsh, I've just watched it again on the 10 minutes "highlights" on mfc. He really can't do anything else with the way the ball is dropping. What is poor as someone else remarked there are three Cov players unmarked waiting for the ball to come their way. To make things worse Engel and the other defender that tries to close down the shot both block the shot to the far post leaving the near post open. You can tie yourself in knots over analysing what should have been done.

newyddion said:
He is bad at corners imo
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No. Barlaser delivers some decent balls into the box but we are poor at converting them. Yes, some were awful lobs into the area little better than catching practice for the keeper but there were two or three that were genuinely threatening the Cov goal. What we don't seem to do is mix it up enough. It was just a succession of balls to the far post. We have had some joy with short corner routines but I don't recall any yesterday. Perhaps one?
 
Diego said:
His decision making in and around his own area is terrifying to be honest. He needs to improve in this area hugely. As going forward he’s ok
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Makes way too many costly errors to be first choice in my opinion - I’d rather have Bangura there
 
The Disciple said:
Makes way too many costly errors to be first choice in my opinion - I’d rather have Bangura there
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Thought Engel was shocking at the start of the season but he has improved and was starting to win me over.
Wouldn't want to write anyone off on the basis of the 2nd half yesterday as the whole side from Carrick down was poor.
 
newusername said:
Thought Engel was shocking at the start of the season but he has improved and was starting to win me over.
Wouldn't want to write anyone off on the basis of the 2nd half yesterday as the whole side from Carrick down was poor.
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I’m not writing him off - he’s a useful squad player but ideally wouldn’t be a first choice at left back purely because of the amount of defensive errors he makes
 
The Disciple said:
Engel made the most basic error a defender can make - you never place a defensive clearance straight out in front of goal, it should be towards the touch line. He just basically teed up the Coventry player for a free shot
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Agree. As a defender I was coached to clear balls high, wide and long in that order.
 
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