Are we as bad at them as I think? We don't seem to jump or attack the ball on its way to goal, but what's worse is that it seems all the opposition need to do is stand two players in the wall, and for them to part to make a path for the ball. Am I being unfair?
I must say I agree. Whenever a freekick is given away in dangerous territory I'm filled with dread. If its on target, it seems to go in. Putting players in the middle of our wall seems a ploy that fools us every time. How hard is it to stand our ground? I also think we're quite naÃve in the areas that we give freekicks away in (Chester seems particularly vulnerable to this). To be fair however, there have been some exceptional freekicks against us as well. Suarez and Toure's stand out in my mind.
I've thought this for a while, you can see exactly what is going to happen, what frustrates more is the 11 on the pitch don't seem to see the dangers. Annoyingly, we aren't learning from mistakes at set pieces either, as we repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over again!
I posted it on the match thread, I dont know why keepers have walls. Theyre far more of a hindrance than they are a benefit. The keeper invariabley cant see the trajectory of the ball until it's over the wall and by then it's too late to move. If he got rid of the wall he's got another 10 yards - so perhaps half a second - of visibility of the ball which would be absolutely crucial. I am utterley convinced the only reason teams line up with walls at free kicks is because everyone else does.
Our throws drive me mad too tbh, 50-50 it seems to end up with the other team, not sure if this is just us or not but we seem to give the ball away too much from these.
Clearly evident against suarez yesterday, mcgregor didn't move till the ball cleared the wall and then he had no chance, the wall needs to jump though, or try and leave a gap in thr middle till the ball is kicked and then quickly move into it, perhaps a squat and lunge technique
How many goals have we conceded from free kicks? I can recall the 4 below: Lampard (chelski), Toure (Man city), Gerrard & Suarez (Liverpool). Not sure if I am missing any others.....but arguably some, if not the best free kick takers the premier league has to offer. Some times I think you have to hold your hands up to a excellent free kick.
Apart from the lampard goal when mcgregeor should habe possibly saved it, the other 3 were pretty unstoppable
There is a big difference between championship and PL quality. I thought there were more than that - The thing is with the PL, when some players take a free kick, and they've got it right, then no keeper is going to get to them. The ones you've mentioned sum that up.
Are we giving away too many easy/unnecessary freekicks? Something we should get wise to, knowing the quality is higher in the prem and we're less likely to get away with it. I don't just mean the direct goals either, think about the goals we've conceded from deliveries into our area from freekicks.
Yes, they were very good free kicks, but at least two of those should never have been given due to diving twats such as Torres and Nasri.
Maybe worth a quick read: http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tacticsandanalysis/id/2317?cc=5739 was looking for free kicks conceded stats and found it.
""The disappointing thing is that we conceded the free kicks. There was no need to make either of the challenges in the Everton match," he later admitted. Indeed, last season West Ham conceded 471 fouls, second-most in the Premier League behind Stoke. That record has improved considerably this season, but positioning of the fouls notwithstanding, it logically makes the Hammers more vulnerable to set-piece goals." Disgraceful anti football has nothing to complain about when conceding from free kicks or penalties.
I noticed that McGregor was lined up well to the right (looking at the goal), presuming Suarez was going for the top right corner. Looked like an invitation for him to go left...which he did.
I think McGreggor is really poor at his freekick positioning. If the freekick is on target then it's likely to go in. He doesn't seem to give himself any chance.
Don't entirely disagree but don't really think any keeper in the world would have saved more than one of those we've conceded as they've all been top corner at speed from absolute world class players. He is a brilliant keeper overall and I'm glad we didn't splash out on Kasper as Greegsy is better anyway.
The Lampard one was a bit of a howler and the Suarez one would have been saved by a goalkeeper with better positioning. No doubt. I too am glad you decided to stop your interest in Kasper. Yet another MOTM performance from the big Dane yesterday
