Are corners really a good opportunity to score a goal?

[Klopper76]

I recently saw some numbers to do with Liverpool missing Van Dijk from corners and set pieces we're attacking, but are they actually a good chance to score? The average success rate of scoring from a corner in the Premier League is about 1 in 30 or there about.

As an example last season Liverpool took just over 250 attacking corners and Van Dijk scored 5 goals. That's about a 1 in 50 success rate. I often see criticism of Harry Maguire on here due to the amount of chances he fails to score from via a corner, but are they really that easy to score from? Statistically speaking you're not that likely to make one count.

From what I remember of Pep's Barcelona they often played corners short and sometimes all the way back to the halfway line to restart a new phase of play, instead of hitting it in and hoping one of their smaller players can try and win a header.

Are they over rated?

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Do people rate corners?

regret does seem to be less goals scored from corners these days / no idea whether that’s true, but that’s my perception.

 

[matt23]

I think so yeah. The same goes for throw ins, half the time whoever takes the throw loses possession of the ball almost immediately, and find themselves out of position.

If I was a manager, I'd be trying to explore the possibilities of using corners to just force the opposition back where they don't want to be.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

I think so yeah. The same goes for throw ins, half the time whoever takes the throw loses possession of the ball almost immediately, and find themselves out of position.

If I was a manager, I'd be trying to explore the possibilities of using corners to just force the opposition back where they don't want to be.

throw ins are a different matter completely. So often disadvantage To whoever has the ball.

Arsene Wenger has said we should scrap them.

 

[DWelbz19]

Not particularly. Much like crossing in general — they are low percentage forms of chances.

 

[El Zoido]

This debate has been going on a while. I could swear at one point a few years ago, United hadn’t scored from a corner in something like 230 attempts, or something ridiculous like that. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. Still a good opportunity to make something happen though, there are a lot of good playmaking scenarios from a corner kick, a simple cross + header being only one.

 

[Spaghetti]

Corners are odd. We probably have a similar scoring / conceding rate from corners, yet I never feel confident of scoring from an attacking one and I always think we are to concede from ones when we are defending.

 

[Ali Dia]

Maguire should have at least 5 more goals for us from corners and set pieces

 

[duffer]

When I used to play 7 a side, I swear we conceded more goals from a break than we ever did attacking a corner.

 

[Strats]

Yeah well, not when you have Maguire headbutting the ball over the stands

 

[arnie_ni]

When I used to play 7 a side, I swear we conceded more goals from a break than we ever did attacking a corner.

This annoys me to no end with utd. If we have rash martial and greenwood playing all of them are in our own box.

Stick the 3 of them up at the half way line and try and start a counter attack.

They're useless in our box anyway

 

[MadDogg]

They certainly are harder to score from than many seem to think, but at the same time with the amount that Maguire wins he really should be scoring (or at least getting it on target) a few more than he does.

 

[Lay]

I used to get nervous when the opposition had a corner, but over the last couple of seasons, unless it’s injury time I don’t overly care.

 

[Rustyspider13]

As a fan of a club that has won a CL and lost a PL on the back of corners, I'm inclined to say yes. Tight games with evenly matched teams are often decided on corners/set pieces. VVD at Anfield last season against United and Ramos' equalizer against Atletico at CL final comes to mind. For me, any time you can put the ball in the opposition box with 3-4 of your own players inside is a good opportunity.

 

[Matthew84!]

When was the last time Utd scored from a corner,

 

[MadDogg]

This annoys me to no end with utd. If we have rash martial and greenwood playing all of them are in our own box.

Stick the 3 of them up at the half way line and try and start a counter attack.

They're useless in our box anyway

I don't understand why we often have James back when we are defending a corner. Surely he's the most obvious player ever to leave upfront.

 

[arnie_ni]

I don't understand why we often have James back when we are defending a corner. Surely he's the most obvious player ever to leave upfront.

Has to be something to do with the zonal marking I doubt. He must need them all back for their own zone

 

[RedDevil@84]

Corners are not a great source of goals, but putting a corner into the mix and putting a header on target is a good habit to have. They may not go in, but still it is a threat which adds up in a good team.
A team which is scoring 90 goals may not think much about 7-8 corner goals. But it is good to be trained for it.

 

[yumtum]

Someone should really tell Maguire to head then ball into the ground, would increase the chance of him scoring.

 

[Samid]

“No”

- Harry Maguire

 

[onetwo3oclock4oclockrock]

When was the last time Utd scored from a corner,

Lidelöf vs Leeds I think?

 

[Berbasbullet]

Lidelöf vs Leeds I think?

Mctominay FA cup

 

[Samid]

Lidelöf vs Leeds I think?

McT vs Watford?

 

[onetwo3oclock4oclockrock]

McT vs Watford?

Correct, forgot about that one. So we got two in a month. Not bad.

 

[VivaRonaldo85]

You very rarely see training ground routines at corners any more. It tends to be the stock delivery of the ball lumped into the box or a short pass to a team mate. I recall years ago when Teddy Sheringham had that front post routine along the ground that was very successful. I just think modern coaching doesn’t appear to value corners as they did maybe 10+ Years ago.

 

[Oranges038]

You would probably see more if the takers could cross a ball properly. I cannot understand how professional footballers can be so bad at taking corners sometimes, it's shocking.

Anyway, I think all corners should be clipped to the edge of the box for a volley, probably see teams score as many and it looks better.

 

[Tomics]

Good question. My answer is no, I think teams should be more innovative in their approach. I am really not a fan corners and throw--ins

 

[Schmeichel=God]

All for simply retaining possession and going again.

Pros...

No concussions, injuries
No getting countered massively out of position
Better chance of crafting a higher expectation shooting chance via patience
Retaining the ball = less of a chance conceding overall.

Corners seem utterly useless to me. Pass short and decongest the box as a result. Can always tump it back post to a Fellaini in a second phase.

 

[Chipper]

No. I've seen different figures from different studies but average is somewhere around 2 or 3% chance of scoring a goal from a corner.

That's about the same as a run of the mill hopeful long range shot from 30-35 yards out.

 

[Murray3007]

Always more shocked at how many corners don't pass the first man, considering these are professional its rather poor

 

[T00lsh3d]

.....not if you’re us. Corners are an in-house competition to see who can head it furthest into the stands. Rankings so far:

1st Harry Maguire
2nd Harry Maguire
3rd Harry Maguire

 

[Caius]

The other side of the coin to this question: how often does the team defending a corner counterattack and score a goal of their own? At least with United that seems just as likely, if not more likely, than actually scoring from one of our own corners.

Corners feel like something that have to be practiced, and if not it might be better to just play the ball back from corners and retain possession/shape as opposed to exposing the team to a counterattack. But I don't know the breakdown and it might just be a subjective perception from watching United recently that goals seem just as likely to come from defending a corner as taking one.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

throw ins are a different matter completely. So often disadvantage To whoever has the ball.

Arsene Wenger has said we should scrap them.

Because he was fed up of being bullied by Stoke and Rory Delap

 

[Red Royal]

Shaw had excellent delivery for his corners on Sunday. Unfortunately it seems our players are just happy to head it so it goes upwards as opposed to a real leap where they get above the ball and head it down.

Gettimh over it does require getting above your opponent which our friend VAR frowns upon.

 

[Chipper]

Compiling stats from a couple of websites, Understat has goals from corners for each team. Team total corners can be found in loads of places, I'll use the Premier League official site.

So far this season:

Team	Total corners	Goals	%
Liverpool	133	6	4.51
Man City	133	5	3.76
Aston Villa	115	4	3.48
Chelsea	115	8	6.96
Leeds	108	4	3.70
Arsenal	104	2	1.92
Wolves	102	7	6.86
Brighton	101	2	1.98
Leicester	97	1	1.03
Man Utd	97	3	3.09
Sheff Utd	94	3	3.19
West Ham	89	5	5.62
Palace	82	2	2.44
Everton	81	6	7.41
Spurs	79	4	5.06
Southampton	73	2	2.74
Burnley	72	3	4.17
Fulham	71	2	2.82
Newcastle	71	1	1.41
WBA	64	3	4.69
Total	1881	73	3.88

 

[RUCK4444]

Conceding corners is good for us as they often create a good opportunity to counter

 

[FootballHQ]

One of my pet hates with football players are the corner takers who can never seemingly beat the first man. Fair enough if opposition stick a 6ft + striker at the near post as they can head away some decently flighted corners but so many get scuffed low and can be easily kicked away.

If I was training a team I'd always insist on the corner taker curling the ball towards the goal. Yes the keeper will collect a few but you get it right and it only needs a slight touch off the head and it's flying towards top corner.

Don't understand the tactics of pinging a diagonal towards the back post. You have to win that head and direct it back across goal for someone to then win another header to put it a bit more centrally and then someone may head it in so possibly three headers needed to score rather than just an inswinger.

When we had Ashley Westwood playing for us the instructions were always to float it to back post as Benteke liked that sort of corner for some reason and we'd score about two a season.

Now at Burnley he just does a normal inswinger and they score loads of them, indeed think he's scored the odd one directly.

Another thing that's always odd is if opposition clears the header away there's never a player on edge of the box to complete the clearence so if ball goes in right area opposition can have a player coming in to get a shot in, think of those mad volleys Scholes used to score from that position and just last week Ndidi scored one for Leicester when Chelsea didn't have anyone on edge of box.

 

[Klopper76]

Compiling stats from a couple of websites, Understat has goals from corners for each team. Team total corners can be found in loads of places, I'll use the Premier League official site.

So far this season:

Team	Total corners	Goals	%
Liverpool	133	6	4.51
Man City	133	5	3.76
Aston Villa	115	4	3.48
Chelsea	115	8	6.96
Leeds	108	4	3.70
Arsenal	104	2	1.92
Wolves	102	7	6.86
Brighton	101	2	1.98
Leicester	97	1	1.03
Man Utd	97	3	3.09
Sheff Utd	94	3	3.19
West Ham	89	5	5.62
Palace	82	2	2.44
Everton	81	6	7.41
Spurs	79	4	5.06
Southampton	73	2	2.74
Burnley	72	3	4.17
Fulham	71	2	2.82
Newcastle	71	1	1.41
WBA	64	3	4.69
Total	1881	73	3.88

These are good stats and highlight the shortcomings of corners. I wonder if you looked at these from 10 or even 20 years ago in the Premier League, you'd see higher conversion rates?

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

What Bruno and Rashford did recently, changing the angle of the attack with a short corner and then crossing it, seems to be a lot more dangerous than just pumping it into the area.

 

[Chief123]

I recently saw some numbers to do with Liverpool missing Van Dijk from corners and set pieces we're attacking, but are they actually a good chance to score? The average success rate of scoring from a corner in the Premier League is about 1 in 30 or there about.

As an example last season Liverpool took just over 250 attacking corners and Van Dijk scored 5 goals. That's about a 1 in 50 success rate. I often see criticism of Harry Maguire on here due to the amount of chances he fails to score from via a corner, but are they really that easy to score from? Statistically speaking you're not that likely to make one count.

From what I remember of Pep's Barcelona they often played corners short and sometimes all the way back to the halfway line to restart a new phase of play, instead of hitting it in and hoping one of their smaller players can try and win a header.

Are they over rated?

The frustration regarding Maguire from corners has been mainly due to him missing headers which should be relatively easy for someone who is as good at heading as he is. So many occasions he actually does the hard part by winning the header but just doesn’t get it on target even when he’s unmarked.