It's strange how some players are like that. Huddlestone, like Seri, could drop a ball just about anywhere he wanted on the pitch, but almost never took a corner. Elmo was a brilliant crosser but never took a corner. What is it that makes corners so much harder?
I often think about this too. I once went on the pitch at the end of a promotion season and remember being stood at the corner spot thinking ‘how the f*** are they not beating the first man?’ Have we ever had a good corner taker? We had a good throw-in taker once in Andy Holt. That might have been the last time I got excited about our delivery from the wide areas.
Elmo was a big boy he was in the box wasn’t he? And fat Tom at the edge of the box definitely. Tom used to take most the free kicks that weren’t worth a shot on goal and did a good job of them didn’t he?
It really is strange, there was a video a week or two ago showing Rossy taking a corner in a challenge and scoring, you would think he would have a drill to improve it.
I think at that level the power that you put into a corner kick requires tricky techniques that can easily go wrong, either over hit or not enough back lift, much like free kicks. I suspect most professional players can comfortably float a corner wherever they want but it would be dealt with easily.
Fair point. These risky techniques just never seem to pay off for us. I think I’d rather us float it in consistently and then if needed, fight for the second ball which is still likely to be in the final third.
Some players when taking corners focus too much on 'the perfect corner', ie - dipping just over the first man. It's difficult to do, but if executed correctly, the attacker can run on and header in from close range largely uncontested. Personally I'd rather they floated one into the box each time and didn't try to do the above... However you've then got to contend with the keeper coming out and claiming it in the air if you've not got someone doing a good job of blocking him in.
It must be a coachable skill. Bowen’s were shocking for us, but he’s got a load of assists for west ham from them
Is it the corners or the people attacking the corners? Soucek is probably the best in the air in the prem, we have a team of midgets
Moyes teams always good at them, Bowen’s delivery would rarely beat the first man though. We had plenty of size in the squad when he was here.
Ben Warner who we got from Derby was meant to be a specialist at them, but can’t say I’ve noticed an improvement in attacking terms. Defensively I’d say we’ve improved
Traore looked good taking them on Saturday when it was in-swinging. I’ve never really understood the idea behind out-swinging ones. Much easier to defend.
We've certainly improved defensively. It's hard to say if attacking set pieces are better because generally the delivery is piss poor
