milner did that to gallagher last weekend and didn't even get a card. Cos he didn't make it look that obvious. IF someone tried that with robbo he'd just bounce off.
Could explain how increase in set piece success this season: please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Saw a vid (might have been posted on here) of a few things they do. Had TAA hooked up to many wires. Small margins isn’t it. If it gets us a couple of goals a season then it’s worth it. It’s a bit like the throw in coach. People scoffed at it and in general play, no one ever really notices how many times you give the ball away from a throw in compared to keeping the ball and then creating a chance. But the stats showed we kept possession more than most from throw ins and if you keep possession then you have more chances of scoring. If people kept giving the ball away from short free kicks you’d ask questions but if it happens from throws no one takes any notice.
good point on margins. I personally think the delivery is one aspect but if you can at least delivery an awkward ball (still too many don't beat the first man) then we can fight for it. Ift he ball is too high its impossible to score direct off but its hard to clear and that gives us the second ball effort. Game before last fabinho scrambles one from vvd knock down Last game mane scores off save from a quality ball from tsimikas to salah on corner. Last game salah scores off knock down from vvd off a good tsimiaks header. second ball. poor header Last game keita worldies off a keeper punch form an average salah corer. second ball. no palace player on edge of box. There's a science behind positioning the players as well as this fluidity thing and also the delivery getting into the mix. You are right though. a full back blindly lobbing it down the line is rely on the opponent climbing and heading ti out to advance down the pack and then its just lost 50% of the time.
Don’t really notice the amount of goals we score from set pieces I think because it’s just become the norm over the last few years which is odd because you wouldn’t expect us to be a huge threat given we arent w big powerful team but as you say it’s the knock downs. It can’t just be luck that we get to the knock downs first. Mentioned about delivery, helps when you have TAA and Robbo (and tsimikas now) who are probably in top 5 crossers of the ball in the league to put it in areas where may not get a header directly at goal, but it causes enough panic. Then it’s about having the right players around that who are switched on. Defenders often switch off if the ball goes over them but our strikers clearly bene tasked with making sure they’re on it 100% and be ready for anything that falls.
if you take a look we seem to rarely go near the keeper unless he is a total panicker as its almost always a free. we go in there on runs but don't start there. We will sometimes line up more or less in a line down the middle of the area. One in occupying the guy on the six yard zone to stop him coming out. One on penalty spot area for that free header. one in a near post type zone but looking to run either way depending on signal. The big men group at the edge of the box for a run in with maybe one blocker. Always one CM near post outside the box and one far post outside box looking for normal areas the ball gets headed towards. Nearly always someone makes a run around to far post area and someone goes towards near post. (not the big men usually) The issue for teams is that they can't put their best headers sat on a six yard line heading it out any more they have to engage VVD and matip.
I posted this on another thread but set plays have been a big part of our armoury in our CL and PL winning seasons. There was a significant drop off last season when we lost VVD and Matip:
seems not too bad then. Porto and city more difficult. Noriwch he was never playing and brentford will be for keita.
Its not great either, hopefully the rest of our injury prone midfield dont break down in the next few games or these injuries start to add up again.
