14 Jan 2016 11:44:09
Corners are a big issue for us both defending and attacking.

From attacking point of view I think the main issue is that our big tall players have absolutely no idea how to attack a ball.

Our corners are played in (if they aren't played short! ) and our big men all seem to be standing directly under it, making it a straight fight between attackers and defenders and also making it much easier for the keeper.

We need our big men to be attacking the ball from deep, taking a chance and jumping on the run, who cares if you aren't anywhere near it and look like a fool at least you've got a run on the defender and given yourself a shot.

Historically the best i have ever seen this done was at Chelsea, with Terry, Drogba, Ballack, Ivanovic etc etc all looking to get across their man and attack the ball.

I don't know whether it is an issue of the players starting position being too close to the keeper, whether they are timing runs too early or whether the ball is coming in to slowly, but something needs to be done to give us at least a shot of getting on the end of it.

1.) 14 Jan 2016
14 Jan 2016 12:14:18
It'd help if we could get the ball past the 1st defender.

2.) 14 Jan 2016
14 Jan 2016 12:24:20
The little chip floating balls Ibe was doing last night where utter crap! need power and precision balls going into the box so it does beat the first man.

3.) 14 Jan 2016
14 Jan 2016 12:57:01
I think the 2 are linked. Because we are crap at taking corners, our defence never gets to practice defending against them!

Ibe has to learn to put in the early ball sometimes. His insistence on always dribbling makes him easy to defend against. He has to learn to vary it. Same could be said for Clyne and Marino.