set-pieces
Monday, March 05, 2007
Sorry if you do not like this... But I just have to comment on Liverpool's set plays. For the majority of the time, it's just poor. Let's talk about free-kicks first. This are Liverpool's various methods of free-kick. It works. But most of the time, it doesn't.
1. Lay off for rampaging player to hit at it. Examples are Alonso or Gonzalez laying off for Steven Gerrard or Riise to ram at it, hoping to go in.
2. Curling it around or over the wall towards goal. Examples are Alonso doing so.
Now all of these most of the time fails. It is very unlikely to score but they still do it. What can I say? Now for the corners, that mostly results into a opponent counter-attack or just breaks up.
1. Short passes and tries to pass back to initial crosser, and usually works backwards to bring it back to normal play. Gerrard to Pennant, tries to play it back to Gerrard but works it to Riise.
2. Short passes and 'short-option' player crosses too deep. Gonzalez lays off to Pennant who just crosses to the other flag.
You see, practically all this does not ever work. Rarely it does. But the importance of set-pieces is there in the modern game. Meaning it is important for set-pieces to produce like 15%-20% of the goals. Liverpool are lacking in this and it costs them sometimes in important games.
Improve or it'll be your downfall.
Bye~!
my thoughts at 9:52 pm