Defending corners

[Ludlow Richard]

Saw Shay Given on MOTD analysing the Leeds v Arsenal game. He said that Leeds should have left 3 players on the half way line to defend Arsenal's  corners which would mean Arsenal having to leave 4 players to prevent a counter attack. It would also mean the penalty area would be less congested, perhaps easier to defend a corner and arguably easier for the goalkeeper. And would mess up Arsenal's corner routines.

Surprised it's taken so long for this idea to emerge. I've been telling my neighbours in H6 for years that we should leave players upfield when defending corners. It can provide a decent outlet when the corner is cleared. When you have all 11 in the box it just means any clearance comes straight back.

Why dont coaches/managers leave players upfield?? Why not leave 6 upfield??

[hovewhite]

Common sense at last sets in.

[bencher]

Saw Shay Given on MOTD analysing the Leeds v Arsenal game. He said that Leeds should have left 3 players on the half way line to defend Arsenal's  corners which would mean Arsenal having to leave 4 players to prevent a counter attack. It would also mean the penalty area would be less congested, perhaps easier to defend a corner and arguably easier for the goalkeeper. And would mess up Arsenal's corner routines.

Surprised it's taken so long for this idea to emerge. I've been telling my neighbours in H6 for years that we should leave players upfield when defending corners. It can provide a decent outlet when the corner is cleared. When you have all 11 in the box it just means any clearance comes straight back.

Why dont coaches/managers leave players upfield?? Why not leave 6 upfield??

It's a gamble. You may not make first contact at all and concede. If Leeds kept 3 up, Arsenal could still gamble and have 2 defending on the halfway line and 1 on the edge of the box to sweep up. Arsenal would fancy their chances of making first contact with only 9 defending players.

If we had 6 on the halfway line, given where the ball is, the most likely outcome is the opponents score, and our scoring would be significantly less likely.

However, I will be intrigued to see what happens when a team does finally try that tactic against Arsenal.

[_Putney_]

When I was a young, I played a lot of youth football in the US, where I grew up. There were games where if you were winning over a certain score, you could not score more otherwise you'd lose tournament points. It was to keep things 'fair'. Utterly ridiculous but whatever.

Anyway, I was often on the losing side. 7-0 for example. And the other team would get a corner, and knowing we couldn't score, we still defended the corner heavily. They never listened to my idea of just getting people forward. Made no sense to me.

If anyone else suffers from insomnia, let me know, I've got lots of other stories.

[ffc73]

Utd are leaving 2 up when we have a corner today. Means 3x defenders back & with usually 2 standing over the ball there is only 5 to find in the box & they are out numbered.