We must have the worst header's of the ball in the world. I remember when we had the likes of Torres and Hyypia (and Gerrard) who could score a number of goals from headers, with power and accuracy which made us a threat from set pieces and crosses. Kuyt can't head the ball for sh*t, he's absolutely useless at heading. Agger isn't that prolific in the air either, Lucas won't win many headers and when he does, there is not power etc etc. We've seen Suarez miss a few good chances in the air as well. Carroll has also been wasteful this season but I feel his confidence is growing and this will improve. I know their strengths (bar Carroll) aren't to head the ball but come on. As mentioned earlier, Torres is (should say was) known for his pace and finishing but he could also head the ball. Cristiano Ronaldo also has this added dimension in his game. We keep saying that we need to improve the crossing which true, but the few times when we do put in a decent ball, we waste it. The only people who can head the ball with pace and accuracy in the current team are Gerrard and probably Skrtel.
nah we are not that bad. kuyts quite a good header of the ball actually, he's scored quite a few in the past, carroll is obviously talented..... have you seen torres lately. Sorry but 75% of the problem is delivery. we've seen bellamy put in quality and the likes of skertl score. most of the time that ball is balooned, hits the first man or is behind the guys forcing them to hit poorer efforts. If you saw how our team took about 20 mins to get with carroll's flick ons you'll see they have not got the mentality in there to expect the ball exactly right and go meet it... rather they are second guessing the abll to come and trying to cover 2-3 options. actually. adam wins most of his aerial duels in midfield, he just never gets in a position to head it goalwards cos he's corssing or taking set pieces kuyt missed a few true but he certainly can head it. gerrard can head but won't head if you get my drift, he'd rather be takign the set piece. bellamy is quite ok in the air if he gets a chance. Suarez seems to be well able as well. all in all i don't buy it.... I don't see us delivering that much real quality to attack.
Fair points, however I disagree with Kuyt. Yes, he has scored a few headers but they are usually from 2 yards out which is good because he shows his intelligence and good movement to get into that position. However, I'm talking about technique and I don't think we have good headers of the ball. Good point about Carroll's flick ons - our players are not used to it and are slow to react. It will take time to get used to this new dimension.
I agree with Mito on this one our delivery from wide areas is shocking at times. Don't forget that under Rafa we often had Gerrard playing wide right so the proportion of good deliveries was probably a bit higher Plus we were notorious for conceding from set pieces so fair to say our ratio of good defensive headers is probably much higher than it was a few seasons ago.
Good points - However my thread was more to do with attacking headers rather than defending. We have restricted teams to the lowest number of shots this season so we must be doing something right in defence lol.
