100 corners, no goals. Edit: 140 corners, 1 goal. 152 corners, 2 goals.

[lsd]

We must be close to breaking this record again, surely? We might as well just roll the ball back to the opposition when we get a corner, we hardly ever take advantage of them, we must be amongst the worst when it comes to corners (and free kicks?) in the league?

We are terrible at free kicks as we don't have one person consistently taking them.

Players seem to take turns do one each throughout the game and if their first attempt is a sighter too bad they won't get the next one anyone

I just think it would be better to have one person ideally Eriksen.

Shaw seems the best at taking corners to me but we just don't attack well enough in the box

 

[Cutch]

Sack our set pieces coach. I have absolutely zero confidence in us scoring when we get a corner and I'm bricking it every time we concede one

 

[Barnslig]

We are terrible at free kicks as we don't have one person consistently taking them.

Players seem to take turns do one each throughout the game and if their first attempt is a sighter too bad they won't get the next one anyone

I just think it would be better to have one person ideally Eriksen.

Shaw seems the best at taking corners to me but we just don't attack well enough in the box

Like someone else said, what the actual feck do we do in training though? There should be some serious reviews about what Eric Ramsay brings and if he should be allowed to continue, absolute rubbish set pieces all around.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

This short corner routine that we were constantly doing throughout the game was doing my head in! It just wasn’t working nor looked like it was going to work.

 

[Lights Out]

Like someone else said, what the actual feck do we do in training though? There should be some serious reviews about what Eric Ramsay brings and if he should be allowed to continue, absolute rubbish set pieces all around.

I said the exact same thing during the game. We have been woeful at corners especially for at least 2 years now. It’s absolutely ridiculous

 

[Annihilate Now!]

There was a corner in the first half yesterday where they had everyone back and it genuinely looked like we had about 3 people in the box.

It inspired me with confidence.

 

[ti vu]

TBF, we have very little aerial threat this season even at full strength. It's worse now since Maguire, Varane unavailable. Martinez is fierce but not sure he's that great at attack set piece.

 

[criticalanalysis]

TBF, we have very little aerial threat this season even at full strength. It's worse now since Maguire, Varane unavailable. Martinez is fierce but not sure he's that great at attack set piece.

Not sure if he's 'great' but he's been on the end of some good chances because his movement and will to get to the ball is good.

 

[KikiDaKats]

Casemiro looks the only player we have capable of scoring headers for us. The poor mentality in this team to push when it matters in rough/tough moments is unbelievable.
We all see the players that get their head to offensive corners, they all bulldoze through the line just to get a head on the ball. This has nothing to do with deliveries, it’s all on the wimps we have playing for us.

 

[Todd]

I've never understood why we don't just play corners short by default. With there being such an extremely low chance of scoring directly from a corner, it'd just make more sense to play it short and hope that something can be created by cycling the ball around.

For that matter, we should attempt some Dutch-style trickery on most of our free kicks from 25 yards or less, because the odds of putting one in directly are extremely low.

 

[Smores]

I've never understood why we don't just play corners short by default. With there being such an extremely low chance of scoring directly from a corner, it'd just make more sense to play it short and hope that something can be created by cycling the ball around.

For that matter, we should attempt some Dutch-style trickery on most of our free kicks from 25 yards or less, because the odds of putting one in directly are extremely low.

We should just play it short and attack the box straight on. We'd get more pens than we do headered goals. Saying that we'd probably get more goals/own goals by belting it in low as hard as possible than we do corners.

 

[Red00012]

The players should all go down to the corner flag and do a mighty ducks move.
Can’t be any worse than watching Fred take a corner

 

[Peelhead]

Yeah, this has been bugging me and a mate for a while. Then I look on the forum and see the 'just how good was David Beckham?' thread (which was great BTW), and think yeah, he was good all right, I'd like to hear his unfiltered thoughts on it!

 

[Flying_Heckfish]

TBF, we have very little aerial threat this season even at full strength. It's worse now since Maguire, Varane unavailable. Martinez is fierce but not sure he's that great at attack set piece.

It's true, but we were crap for a long while, even when we had a taller team overall.

Could be we haven't targeted buying players with aerial ability all these years... but, I think more likely we just haven't been coaching it effectively.

 

[Care_de_Bobo]

We should just play it short and attack the box straight on. We'd get more pens than we do headered goals. Saying that we'd probably get more goals/own goals by belting it in low as hard as possible than we do corners.

No chance, I'm not sure what we'd have to do to get a penalty these days. We've had two all season; one when we were 6-2 down against City and one for the most obvious handball you'll ever see against Palace, a decision that still took about 3 minutes looking for a way not to give it. Later in the same game Casemiro was sent of for holding someone's shirt to even things up.

The media narrative is a joke. Against Spurs the commentary team were calling for Lindelof to be sent off despite the fact it was never a yellow card challenge and Romero got away with an even worse challenge in the first half. We get a fair decision in our favour and it's discussed to death. Not a peep about the 6 or 7 yellow cards Brighton got away with at the weekend though.

As for set pieces, when Casemiro is your main threat then you're not scoring many. Nothing to do with the delivery. We'd probably have a better success rate shooting direct from every corner at this point until we bring in some players who can attack the ball.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

IMO, the quality of the corner kick is the most critical element. We have many good header and if the corner kick was good it makes the heading easier.

We used to have Beckham taking corner that was so accurate to the player head that it feels like a tap in.

 

[Leftback99]

We have decent enough takers but no aerial threat. No coincidence that Liverpool are top of goals from set pieces and we're rock bottom.

 

[Oscar Bonavena]

At this stage, any corners we get are an advantage to the opposition, as they invariably clear the ball comfortably and then launch their own counterattack when most of our players have pushed forward.

And you'd best believe Emery has a plan in place for just such a scenario tomorrow.

As a previous poster said, we'd be better off taking them short and working a better angle to send the ball in.

And the free kicks are just a joke.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

It’s the combination of our corners being a complete waste of time with opposition corners looking so threatening that kills me. It’s kind of mad we are where we are in the league when the odds are stacked against us like that.

 

[Ole'sgunnarwin]

We have decent enough takers but no aerial threat. No coincidence that Liverpool are top of goals from set pieces and we're rock bottom.

We don't have decent takers. At all. Fred and Shaw sometimes hit corners. Even players you think should have good delivery like Bruno can't hit one. The only one who's half decent is Eriksen. Even direct free kicks. We're bloody awful, what are we doing in training?

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Dunno why it's so hard to put the ball under the cross bar every corner. That should be the default corner.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Dunno why it's so hard to put the ball under the cross bar every corner. That should be the default corner.

Because, unlike Manchester United, most teams have a keeper who will catch/punch the ball if it’s close to them.

 

[lysglimt]

I wonder how many extra points we would get from signing Ward-Prowse. 10-15 goals extra from set-piecces alone ?

 

[zaafi]

I wonder how many extra points we would get from signing Ward-Prowse. 10-15 goals extra from set-piecces alone ?

We'd have less points than now with him in our midfield

 

[lysglimt]

We'd have less points than now with him in our midfield

Not sure about that - he is an underrated player

 

[Abraxas]

No willingness to attack the ball from most of the players. That's what it always comes down to with corners. Who actually wants to get in there and mix it up and potentially take a whack. They're not that scientific. It's okay having a routine and yes this will give an edge, but it will never compensate having personalities that actually fancy the job. I don't think it's so much about the delivery, even when we get the delivery right it's mostly non threatening.

Then at the other end a lot of the problems come from having a keeper that flails at set pieces. If you have a keeper that you know will patrol his 6 yard box and deal with the vast majority of stuff that comes into it, whether it's by punch or catch, the defence know where the danger is or isn't. It sets their mind to the task. We don't really know what's going to happen when it goes anywhere near DeGea. Then you have the same personalities that don't want to attack corners that have to defend them. Only difference is they have the advantage that it's statistically quite hard to direct a corner into a goal compared to defending.

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Because, unlike Manchester United, most teams have a keeper who will catch/punch the ball if it’s close to them.

Not when you crowd them

 

[Lecland07]

Is it about our takers or lack of aerial ability? We barely score from crosses, either.

Rashford has improved this season, but it might have been a purple patch. Casemiro has show he can. Outside of those two, though, there is nobody who has shown they can score headed goals.

 

[KikiDaKats]

No willingness to attack the ball from most of the players. That's what it always comes down to with corners. Who actually wants to get in there and mix it up and potentially take a whack. They're not that scientific. It's okay having a routine and yes this will give an edge, but it will never compensate having personalities that actually fancy the job. I don't think it's so much about the delivery, even when we get the delivery right it's mostly non threatening.

Then at the other end a lot of the problems come from having a keeper that flails at set pieces. If you have a keeper that you know will patrol his 6 yard box and deal with the vast majority of stuff that comes into it, whether it's by punch or catch, the defence know where the danger is or isn't. It sets their mind to the task. We don't really know what's going to happen when it goes anywhere near DeGea. Then you have the same personalities that don't want to attack corners that have to defend them. Only difference is they have the advantage that it's statistically quite hard to direct a corner into a goal compared to defending.

You’re spot on here. It’s not always about perfect deliveries, our guys just don’t attack the ball and cause a nuisance. It doesn’t even have to be headed for it to be a goal. We have only a few players with the aptitude to attack corners (Varane, Martinez and Casemiro). There is a reason why Maguire doesn’t score enough of them because he tries to rely more on his height than brute force like Matip/VVD/Diaz/Gabriel and every other defender in the bottom half.

 

[CloneMC16]

The only player we have that is any good at attacking corners and putting them on target is Casemiro. I've noticed that we've started to take more short corners recently. The coaches can see that putting the ball straight into the box isn't working for us.

A bigger issue than not scoring from corners is the opposition countering us from our own corners way too often. We usually look far more likely to concede when we have a corner.

 

[glasgow 21]

The answer is its a hidden Health and Safety directive. The players are reducing the impact of heading the ball by 50% resulting in no attempts to win any in the opposition's half, simples.

 

[bleedred]

Whats the count now?. Its getting ridiculous

 

[jem]

Our short corner routine is pathetic; I actually laughed when we did it and Shaw immediately got flagged for offside.

 

[FerociousCorgis]

Our short corner routine is pathetic; I actually laughed when we did it and Shaw immediately got flagged for offside.

it was just too perfect that the offside corner came right after our best corner routine id seen all year that antony scuffed. Ive yet to see any short corner routine work all season for united. Not even have they not worked, theyve looked horrendous every single time.

 

[scottser]

It's not just corners. We dont retain possession from throw ins and goal kicks either.

 

[ti vu]

Distant past now, having corner kick used to be an advantage to pile on opponent. Nowadays, it's more a disadvantage having the team disorganized with players wasting energy getting up the pitch, only to having to run back into positions. What used to be routine attacking phase is now a worthless phase of play for team of midgets and soft technicians. No wonder VVD got a big reputation being a threat attacking in set piece/corner situation this era.

 

[Samid]

Score from a corner after about a lifetime and it's... offside. The club is cursed.

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Don't worry, we hired a set piece coach.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Btw we scored from a corner yesterday

 

[Fitchett]

Btw we scored from a corner yesterday

Yes, I realised that once the euphoria of Hojlund scoring the winner had settled. Does anyone know the previous time we scored from a corner?

I remember the awful run we had a couple of years ago when we went something like 140 corners before we scored. There was a guy who sits in East Stand Upper Tier who used to shout the updated number, in his best Darts commentators voice, after every failed attempt!