free kicks

murray out

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2011
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sunderland
not blaming bruce as most teams are guilty of it but why is there never a defender on 1 of the posts when defending a direct free kick? imo it surely must be more difficult to score with a defender on 1 of the posts
 
Offside rule

If you had a defender on the post, a striker could stand right in front of the keeper and put him off, its a forward pass/shot, corners are not forward, hence why you get them on the posts at corners, but not freekicks.
 
Why not just get a few players stand on the line so theres no space to score, with the keeper infront
impossible to score from corners/freekicks then!!
 
I remember Shearer scoring a free kick from the edge of the box, or just inside anyway from a backpass for England and they had 10 players on the line, and he still managed to squeeze it in.

I think if scoring from free kicks were the norm, as in 30-70 flew in every season they may change it, but its about 10-20 a season that go flying into the back of the net, from probably 150+ that get taken, so what they do now is working. (walls do work for the most part)

But i believe thats all it is, offside.

A corner is a pass back, so if the defending team had 10 players on the 18 yard line, but the attacking team had 8 players on the 6 yrd line, it would still count as the attackers cant be offside, so the strategy is to put 2 on the line to help the keeper.

With a direct free kick, they can be offside, but if you put 1 or 2 on the line, they cant be offside, and can pack the box with their attackers, and surround the keeper, making it a mess and even harder to defend.