It's something that really needs to be resolved and sooner rather than later. Players need to be made to realise the importance of their duties and stop conceding 'soft' goals - we'd be on at least 13 points if we could defend set pieces.
I don't think we've got the tallest squad in the PL so that might play a part but also could be lapse in concentration. I still feel a bit gutted we conceded so close to the end.
From what I've seen in previous games, our players appear to watch the ball, rather than the players - that was certainly the case for the goal we conceded against Bournemouth.
One thing we could work on is not giving away unnecessary fouls in dangerous positions. But I guess everything is tense near the end of a game and it's easy to say that in front of my keyboard. The good news is that in theory it should only be a job for the training ground and working out who is doing exactly what. It should be nowhere as crippling as a lack of creativity or basic ball control would be.
Just watching MOTD and Danny Murphy pointed out just how many 'soft' goals from set pieces we've conceded. (And the BBC then showed them all from this season! ) It's a simple training ground fix, apparently - why didn't Alex Neil realise that? But seriously, it's virtually one per game which will eventually cost us big time if it's not tightened up / eradicated.
As soon as west ham brought carol on I would have been tempted to take Whittaker off move rusty to right back and put ryben on to give us a more physical presence at the back. We seem to have excellent squad flexibility in the midfield but we always play the same back five and Jerome. We have done well so far but we cannot keep having to find two or three goals from midfield to get any sort of result.
Excellent post Cromer and we could have at least 2 extra points, if not 4!! Not totally convinced, as it's a team responsibility to defend set pieces - though Ruddy could have caught the cross yesterday, but he made some excellent saves earlier.
I don't think I've seen a single set piece goal where it was our CBs marking that failed? It's usually been the midfielders or fullback that have let go of their man. But it's a team responsibility. The other thing is matching up players on players. That's difficult against a West Ham team with three players on over 6'3" (just to take yesterday as an example, this doesn't always work). Lots of us have defended Martin on the basis that a lot of what he brings isn't recognised by some against his shortcomings in the air, but I do wonder if when we have West Ham set up quite obviously for Championship style hoof it to our three big men tactic (and I know it goes against received wisdom) why not take off a ball playing CB and bring on one who's good in the air? It was so obvious West Ham were going to bombard us aerially, and R Bennett has played a bit with Bassong so it's not as if they're not in tune. Just for the last fifteen, I think that would have been maverick, but otherwise we're always going to risk one attacker being lined up against one of our shorter guys. I guess it would never happen though.
I apolgise for my earlier post, clearly it can't be our CB's fault and it must be down to Ruddy cause he's the goal keeper or our midfielders cause they're not helping out the defence enough. As I raised in another thread I don't think AN rates Ryan Bennett. I guess the only answer is to buy some more midfielders and a proper goalie.
I don't know whether that's supposed to be a joke, or you're genuinely being sarcastic because you believe the opposite, but yes the answer is that the CBs quite clearly cannot be at fault if they both mark their man and stop him scoring, but Tettey or Whittaker get out-jumped or lose their marker. Which is what has happened at virtually every set piece we've conceded this season (not just those two). The answer is that you're predisposed against Martin, so will blame him for anything and everything. Yesterday's goal was not his fault, but no doubt in your head it must be simply because he was on the pitch.
From what I've seen and heard from pundits it seems that our biggest issue in defending set pieces is one of organisation. Hence comments like 'its something that should be easily sorted out on the training ground'. Bassong and Martin have been playing together for sometime now, both have experience in the premier league on top of that Martin is our captain and Bassong has been a captain. Both CB's have in my mind much wider responsibilities than marking their man. Martin or Bassong need to take responsibility for organising the defence. One of our problems with defending set pieces in my mind is attacking the ball in the air, an area which I think is a weakness in respect of Martin. I'm not predisposed against Martin I just don't think can do no wrong like some on here. Couple of other comments Who was Martin marking for the first goal, from memory I think it was a space. If Martin was playing at RB, then he might not make the mistakes that you believe Whittaker makes and we would have Ryan Bennett or possible Wisdom at CB both of who I think are probably better in the air than Martin.
Lots of issues here. Looking at the whole picture, IMO the problem is not just the goals at set pieces but the fact that we concede far too many set-pieces in the first place. West Ham had 7 corners and a lot more set-pieces as you'd expect when we're playing away. They scored from one of those. I'd work on cutting out as many set-pieces as possible and then on improving our defence of them. There was no real need for Tettey to concede that final set-piece in the first place. There was far more threat from the set-piece than there was from open play at that position. The trouble is that when a set-piece is conceded the opposition can bring most or all of their players into the penalty area to put pressure on. That isn't the case in open play. I may be wrong, but my recollection is that Martin and Bassong concede far fewer set pieces than others like Turner and RyBen have done in the past. Tettey does concede a lot, but not as many as Bradley Johnson did, for example. Even so, we still concede too many, IMO. Yes we need to improve our defending of set pieces, but we also need to cut down on the number we concede. One of our best games in this regard was Liverpool where we seemed to concede far fewer than usual and that was a big part in our getting a result there.
? They are two players. It's organisation of the whole team. At set pieces the CBs can only do their job. It's the rest of the team failing to do theirs that's the problem (not just Whits and Tettey, I'm picking on them just because they're the ones I remember). It's really annoying how anyone who tries to defend Martin is accused of saying he can do no wrong. No. I've never said that. You've made it up. I'm just saying you don't give him credit when he does right. I will be amongst the first to criticise him if he's at fault, too. I'm just not so blind to what the manager sees in him for the good aspects. The bottom line is, if he didn't have a history with us at RB, we'd all be singing (you included) if we'd signed someone with his reviews at CB last season, given that he was in the Championship team of the season (to amusing bewilderment of many on here). And this season he has consistently been top rated by the closest thing to objective measures we have (i.e. not City fan opinion.) "If Martin was playing at RB" - ah so we're back to blaming the manager are we? Neil's love child? He isn't playing at RB. Because he's better as a CB, much as you don't like it. Christ, there is going to be hell on here when Martin actually makes a mistake that leads to a goal given the criticism for him when he's not even at fault.
