Fawlty Towers Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 I have heard it said and seen it written here about how we are poor at defending set pieces and how we don't make the most of them attacking wise but my thoughts from the games I have seen is that we are actually improving in this area so I thought I would check this out. We have conceded 28 league goals and of those 9 were from set pieces. 7 of our 32 goals scored came from set pieces so we are really 2 down in this area which, without checking last season's figs, is an improvement on last season. In general as well I don't worry as much (I always worry at games) when the opposition get a corner/free kick this season. This. like the management saying we are a top six side, seems to be one of those things that some people seem to think if they keep repeating it becomes the truth but the facts don't really back it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p12tfc Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Are you including goals like Friday nights which, although not scored directly from the corner still was scored as a result of saints player being first to 2nd ball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter of '63 Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 It's definitely my impression that we are far better at defending set pieces this year - Seaborne, Frans & Osman are big guys who are good at heading the ball away. One of the things I noticed immediately on our return to the top League last season was not that SPFL teams had exceptionally skillful players but that they all had guys who were big units. Their sheer size gave us problems - I can remember us conceding easy headed goals from corners or free kicks against Aberdeen, St Mirren, Celtic, Hearts & Ross County. Last season we won dozens of corners - I think the stats well in to the season were that we were up with Celtic & Aberdeen on corners won. I'm sure in the first St Mirren game we had 15 corners to their 2...but they scored from one of them. The only corners I recall us scoring from last year were both at Tynecastle from ATS & Mair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fawlty Towers Posted February 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Are you including goals like Friday nights which, although not scored directly from the corner still was scored as a result of saints player being first to 2nd ball Yes and also included penalties. Counted Higgy's goal against Accies as well as it was from a throw in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buchanio Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 our main problem is not anticipating the second ball. Our success rate from picking up possession from this is poor.Higgy for instance wins almost all flick ons but we rarely capitalise from this by a runner overlapping. There are examples of this all over the pitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Gekantawa Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Watching yesterday's semi-final, I thought both sides were a bit dodgy at defending set-pieces, particularly United. I don't think it a coincidence that we scored a rare goal from a corner against them a couple of weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Willjag Posted February 2, 2015 Members Report Share Posted February 2, 2015 Back to Friday night and that was the one thing I found really frustrating. Every corner, freekick and long throw we put into the box was well contested (usually by Stevenson) and the Saints defence only rarely were able to clear it first time. However, they won every single second ball including the one in our box that led to their goal and for me, that was the one big difference between both sides on Friday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted February 2, 2015 Report Share Posted February 2, 2015 Back to Friday night and that was the one thing I found really frustrating. Every corner, freekick and long throw we put into the box was well contested (usually by Stevenson) and the Saints defence only rarely were able to clear it first time. However, they won every single second ball including the one in our box that led to their goal and for me, that was the one big difference between both sides on Friday. Spot on, Will, The most annoying thing was that was virtually all St Mirren did right and it was still good enough to get the points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.