It really showed when we needed to force something and every single one of our crosses was bad. How come we are so bad at crossing?
The whole team cant cross?
- Thread starter RedStarUnited
- Start date
It has to be something in training for it to be apparent in so many of our players. Maybe it's such a low priority in training, as in we don't do enough of it, or we're told to do things a certain, specific way.
Yes it is down to coaching. United is the only team I have seen that seems not to practice corners. I mean look at all the top teams and they have a variations that seem to work. Ours is only one way and that is try to put it on the head of Maguire who is going to head over the bar.
3 months later and its the case.
5 minutes to go, losing at home in.a big game. Everyone does everything but cross the ball in to the box.
5 minutes to go, losing at home in.a big game. Everyone does everything but cross the ball in to the box.
I keep saying it, I find it astonishing any professional footballer at this level can’t cross a football let alone one a Manchester United.
Why does crossing seem so hard for this team?
I’d love to see what our training sessions consist off, it really can’t be much, definitely not corners, free kicks, crossing, passing or any sort of combination play.
Reguilon just put one on a plate for Bale, on his weaker leg! The crossing thing is criminal in my opinion. How can professional footballers not be able to cross a ball?!
Shaw is pathetic. The way he can’t even beat the first man on the corner is mental. League 2 players better crossers than him.
Only one man for the job: Come on everyone let's give it a belt " Soooooo c'mon feel the Moyes, play like Fergie's boys, we'll go wild, wild, wild..."
We don’t get in behind to cross. It’s too slow, that’s the problem. Shaw and AWB are not good at going forward, we also don’t have genuine width. So a bad bad mix.
I used to think it was a fault of the players. But, it's impossible for every single one of our players in multiple positions to be this badly at crossing. It just can't be the case. Even mathematically, one of them would be good at it.
Clearly, we don't prioritise this in training. Either that, or we are practising this in such a strange way that it is having a detrimental effect on the team. E.g. we're coaching them incorrect technique, or asking them to do specific things which is having a negative impact.
I would also say that our passing needs looking at. So many passes take either an age to make it to the next person (especially across the back four, or back four to midfield) or the long passes forward are overhit or terribly aimed. We don't zip the ball around cleanly on the floor like so many other teams do. It's not a surface problem of Old Trafford, because other teams visit and are able to do this.
I think our whole general play needs looking at. I wouldn't even say that there was one area that we excelled in. I think we're generally quite poor at simple passing, probing passes forward, movement, crossing, attacking headers, positional play...there's a lot of work to do.
Ruthless me would say that our coaching staff and setup needs looking at. There are plenty of mid-table clubs in the Premier League who move and generally play better football that we do, with supposedly weaker players. We are simply not coaching our players into better ones.
Clearly, we don't prioritise this in training. Either that, or we are practising this in such a strange way that it is having a detrimental effect on the team. E.g. we're coaching them incorrect technique, or asking them to do specific things which is having a negative impact.
I would also say that our passing needs looking at. So many passes take either an age to make it to the next person (especially across the back four, or back four to midfield) or the long passes forward are overhit or terribly aimed. We don't zip the ball around cleanly on the floor like so many other teams do. It's not a surface problem of Old Trafford, because other teams visit and are able to do this.
I think our whole general play needs looking at. I wouldn't even say that there was one area that we excelled in. I think we're generally quite poor at simple passing, probing passes forward, movement, crossing, attacking headers, positional play...there's a lot of work to do.
Ruthless me would say that our coaching staff and setup needs looking at. There are plenty of mid-table clubs in the Premier League who move and generally play better football that we do, with supposedly weaker players. We are simply not coaching our players into better ones.
Actually thought our crosses were decent today, there's no real targets to hit outside of set pieces.
Crossing is a trap. Any team in the league would be happy for you to keep pumping balls in.
Our failure is actually that we are too predictable, and that teams can easily force us wide as we run out of ideas as soon as we get the ball.
Our failure is actually that we are too predictable, and that teams can easily force us wide as we run out of ideas as soon as we get the ball.
This is it. Everyone constantly moans about crosses, but who the feck are they meant to be crossing to? People here seem to love completely meaningless and pointless whipped in crosses to no one. They still bring up CBJ’s “amazing” crosses which in reality were just smashed across the box to no one and were largely all incomplete and led to feck all.
Another one is everyone losing there shit about Telles at PSG, ignoring the fact all his good balls in were actually corners, not crosses. PSG were shit aerially and we actually had people on the box for corners. In open play we didn’t, hence why he only completed one cross in play and that was to the edge of the box. Shaw had a better cross that match to Martial. No surprise it was straight after a corner too.
There was a perfect example against I think Newcastle. Ball was deflected out left and Shaw lined up to hit it back in first time. Only to look over his shoulder to see Martial and Pogba sprinting towards him for a short pass and Rashford on the far right top corner of the box. Leaving a grand total of 0 people picking up a spot for a cross. So why exactly would he fecking cross it then?
Not to mention it’s also just a pretty shit tactic to begin with. Don’t understand everyone’s love for random crosses all match.
I've been saying this for a while. There's too many things we don't do properly, that other lesser teams do quite competently. We might beat them cos we have better individuals. But it does do my head in seeing us mess up what should be basics for proper teams.
If only Moyes stay as the manager.. our players will get to improve and deliver good crosses for 7 years
Agreed. Shaw's crosses are decent enough (although not great of course). We lack good targets across the forward line. Not much better on set pieces. Maguire isn't even that good, and after him it drops off a cliff. Like, who's the second best set piece target? Scott? Don't tell me Pogba.
Shaw's decided that he can cross and take set pieces as soon as Telles joins the squad.
I swear it's the weirdest thing. Like Phil Jones taking corners. Its absurd.
Very well put. It's odd watching United, when you also watch other teams play. Much of the time it's as if our setup doesn't generate the same kind of tempo, angles and overloads you see other teams creating. It's almost as if every player who receives the ball has no preexisting idea about where his teammates will be, and has to invent the wheel every time they make a pass.
Except on the counter of course, where we have regularly seen some excellent first time passes to create dangerous opportunities. But then again - from a purely logical point of view the counter patterns should be by far the easiest to coach, given how you much space you can assume as a baseline. Now as I'm writing this, I wonder if that's at least part of the explanation for why we do well against some of the big sides. Because we actually train counterattacking patterns much more than them, and unlike most teams forced to think in these terms for their attacking patterns, we actually have a lot of very talented players to execute that kind of plan with.
So we end up with a "small club strategy" so to speak executed by much better players than you normally see in those teams fighting for their survival in the league, by trying to be tough to beat and dangerous on the break.
Its very hard to cross when our fullbacks have no idea what going forward is.
Crossing? They can't even pass properly.
I still think our crosses aren't as bad as people make out. It's just that: (a) we don't get enough players in the box and (b) none of our forwards are good in the air (except Cavani).
That sounds more like Mourinho than SAF, if you put it that way.
The lack of quality from crosses, free kicks and corners is astounding. Whether its Shaw leaning back, sending it 200ft in the air and over hitting it, AWB always slowing play and playing it back, Rashford or Bruno just smashing it, or whoever is taking the corner, failing to beat the first man, we must be one of the poorest teams in the league in this regard.
No matter what system is used, crossing is always going to be a crucial part of any game. You don't need a 6ft target man either. Look at city with their strikers. (To be fair they have probably the best crosser of a ball feeding them) but the point remains... the correct weight of cross, in the right area will cause problems for the opposition and we are seriously incompetent at delivering.
No matter what system is used, crossing is always going to be a crucial part of any game. You don't need a 6ft target man either. Look at city with their strikers. (To be fair they have probably the best crosser of a ball feeding them) but the point remains... the correct weight of cross, in the right area will cause problems for the opposition and we are seriously incompetent at delivering.
Cross to who? Our forwards arent rhe player u cross too
It's beyond embarassing now.
This. Slow in thought, weight, speed and invention. It is now becoming tumescent.
.
No movement in box, why cross, cavani who i put in ff team as I thought he might start, scratches his tigh as a warm up
Shit tactic but yet, the two best teams in this also happen to have the two best crossers in the league.
Considering how bad we are at creating chances. Crosses would add so much to our chance creation. Like I said earlier, with 5 minutes to go, we ended up recycling the ball uselessly for about 6 minutes before we did anything.
And Mane/Salah/Sterling are?
All im asking is to see at least drilled balls flashed against the goal. We don't even have that most of the time. If you look at the types of goals we score, tap ins are a rarity.
As other have already said, there are so many basics we dont do well.
Whole team can't pass. Crossing is wishful thinking.
Why is he taking corners then? I mean, you have a great header of the ball in Cavani waiting for a decent ball, and he doesn’t beat the first man. It’s really hard to be this bad at taking corners, he must practice a lot.
Read this wrong , I thought the thread was This team can’t take a corner .
Problem is this is going on since Nani left
Problem is this is going on since Nani left
Every player loses the ability to take a corner or cross the ball upon joining United. We saw this with Mata when he joined after being exceptional at crossing and on dead balls at Chelsea.
Give it 5 games and Telles will be putting in Bebe crosses.
Give it 5 games and Telles will be putting in Bebe crosses.
sad but trueThe two best teams have the two best of everything in the league. They have the best crossers because they are the best teams. Not the other way round.
1.6% of crosses are scored from. Key passes from crosses are only scored 11.9% of the time compared to the total percent of key passes leading to goals of 14.1%.
It’s a low percentage shit tactic to rely on. Working the ball into the box is far more effective.
And like I said, which you conveniently seem to have ignored, we never have anyone in the box. So randomly pumping in crosses won’t add to our chance creation at all, let alone “so much”.
Hate to be that guy but there you go, 2 goals in 2 games from crosses....