set pieces and crosses

[jimbolala]

we always have plenty, but we never ever do anything other than whack it into the box, now this may work when you have a striker that can head a ball unlike crouchy who seems to be able to deflect a ball or there is another alternative...but it must be easy to defend against knowing what is coming and even if you do miss a cross you know no one is gonna convert it anyway,,,,so much pressure on the defence its unreal..we have to keep the other team to nil to be comfortable,,,,,the lack of movement up front is embarrassing, charlton have 2 half decent strikers and they looked brilliant compared to ours

[Romario]

I always find this very strange as well. We've got a very tall side yet we get zip all from corners.

[Cheesecake]

why is the pressure on the defence so bad? surely its the same as if we score - the defence is still under pressure it just makes goals conceeded more costly - not extra pressue though?

 

The object of the defence is to keep a clean sheet - Reina and co dont switch off if we score one or two...

 

The 'pressure' is on the forwards to score a goal - thats what wins games.

Edited February 9, 2006 by DPD1973

[Guest Jack Bauer]

No point having tall players who are s*** at heading.

[Guz]

No point having tall players who are s*** at heading.

 

No point in having good headers of the ball if we cant even put in a decent cross . Atleast today proved it's not just Gerrard's fault every game.

 

Give Finnan set piece duty.

[Guest Cardie]

Best header of the ball is Garcia.

[Guest Jack Bauer]

We have put plenty of decent crosses in, our forwards don't seem to be mobile enough to get onto the end of them and if they do, they seem unable to hit the target. Don't know what happened to Morientes like, Crouchy has always been mostly miss rather than hit when it comes to heading.

[Guest westang]

We have put plenty of decent crosses in, our forwards don't seem to be mobile enough to get onto the end of them and if they do, they seem unable to hit the target. Don't know what happened to Morientes like, Crouchy has always been mostly miss rather than hit when it comes to heading.

 

and we didn't win a lot of second balls outside the box; when we did, we failed to launch another attack quickly

[Smith]

we always have plenty, but we never ever do anything other than whack it into the box, now this may work when you have a striker that can head a ball unlike crouchy who seems to be able to deflect a ball or there is another alternative...but it must be easy to defend against knowing what is coming and even if you do miss a cross you know no one is gonna convert it anyway,,,,so much pressure on the defence its unreal..we have to keep the other team to nil to be comfortable,,,,,the lack of movement up front is embarrassing, charlton have 2 half decent strikers and they looked brilliant compared to ours

 

Imagine the Dons of the 90's with yesterdays amount of corner kicks. Result would have been 2-7 instead of 2-0.

[Tyler]

It is something that we must work on in training.

 

We have a very tall team and need to start taking advantage of the amount of corners we seem to force.

 

Delivery needs to be better but also needs to be better movement in the box.

[Owen1978]

We have put plenty of decent crosses in, our forwards don't seem to be mobile enough to get onto the end of them and if they do, they seem unable to hit the target.

 

Agreed, crouch doesnt attempt to head, he just lets it hit him on his head, which then goes towards goal without any power or direction!

Edited February 9, 2006 by Owen1978

[Guest JB2]

Our free kicks and corners are probably the worst in the league, which is a disgrace considering that we haev one of the tallest teams in the league.

 

I dont know why we even bother cheering for corners, its not like we are going to do anything with it .

[Stevie H]

it's rafa's patented zonal offence. we stand in the space and wait for the ball to arrive on our heads rather than having a run-up and attacking the ball.

[Mono]

We need someone who can float the ball across like Gary Macca could.

I've seen Alonso do it but he seldom takes corners when Stevie G is on the pitch and most corners are whipped across if put into the box or otherwise there's some attempt at working an angle with a short corner

[Earl Hafler]

Crespo's goal yesterday - Chelsea pack their tall players around the far post, Crespo makes a darting run to the front post and Lampard finds him with a well taken free-kick.

 

Movement and delivery like that doesn't seem possible for us.

[IcelandicFan]

I don´t think that Morientes did win a header at all last night... The only thing that Hreidarsson can do is head and we played to his strenghts all night long. It´s sad to say but I have been cursing my fellow countrymen Gudjohnsen and Hreidarsson a lot the last few days and it doesn´t bother me at all. I fooking hate the Chavs and Gudjohnsen and I bloddy hate Hreidarsson for probably playing his best game all season yesterday.

[Guest Sabre]

I hate the way all our tall players stand close to one another before the corner is taken. Why can't we just split them up, one to run near post, one to run far post, one to challenge in the six yard area, running from deep and pace to attack the ball?

 

Rafa likes to play the ball to the far post to nod it back across the box but it's all too easily cleared.

[Logic]

The problem is that Crouch is always a step behind his defender and is continually stuck on the wrong side of his defender.

 

The other problem is that Morientes lacks all the necessary aggression to make any kind of impact in the league.

 

IMO we should stick Fowler and Cisse up front and tell them that they will the the two front men until the end of the season. Give them the confidence strikers need and allow them to do what they do best. Which is to score goals.

 

With Crouch and Moro upfront we aren't dangerous in attack. We lack all bite. Yesterday we controlled the game but there was no danger because of how inept our forwards is at scoring goals.

[Guest Sabre]

 

 

IMO we should stick Fowler and Cisse up front and tell them that they will the the two front men until the end of the season. Give them the confidence strikers need and allow them to do what they do best. Which is to score goals.

 

 

 

Yes, and that would be stupid because you demoralise the other strikers and if one of Fowler or Cisse gets crocked, the other player knows they're only coming in until the other is fit.

 

Added to that, Benitez doesn't want to play a game where we rely on the pace of someone like Cisse. Neither of them are proficient at holding the ball up.