Corners/Free Kicks

[Duggie]

at one point i was ranting at the tv last night. all the free kicks we got and corners and i cant remember 1 good delivery. surely something we have to work on. and what was with those short corners last night, didnt work. we really need our set pieces so hopefully it will improve.

[Serb]

Set piece delivery was really awful, yes. Stephen Hunt is normally excellent from free kicks and corners, and it was his cross that set up the goal for Dunne vs Bulgaria, but he just wasn't up to scratch against the Italians. Darron Gibson attempted a few corners and wasn't much better.

Andy Reid is probably the best set piece taker available to Ireland at the moment, but obviously he's not getting into the squad so that's a bit of a moot point.

In a full strength Trappatoni Ireland team, McGeady and Duff would have been taking the set pieces, I'm sure they would have been of a higher standard in that case.

[irishfan86]

Set piece delivery was really awful, yes. Stephen Hunt is normally excellent from free kicks and corners, and it was his cross that set up the goal for Dunne vs Bulgaria, but he just wasn't up to scratch against the Italians. Darron Gibson attempted a few corners and wasn't much better.

Andy Reid is probably the best set piece taker available to Ireland at the moment, but obviously he's not getting into the squad so that's a bit of a moot point.

In a full strength Trappatoni Ireland team, McGeady and Duff would have been taking the set pieces, I'm sure they would have been of a higher standard in that case.

I don't really rate McGeady from set pieces, and Duff is O.K. when crossing for them at best.

I'd say Andy Reid and Liam Lawrence are the best eligible set piece takers.

[dr_peepee]

I don't really rate McGeady from set pieces, and Duff is O.K. when crossing for them at best.

I'd say Andy Reid and Liam Lawrence are the best eligible set piece takers.

Does a throw-in count as a set peice??

[Stuttgart88]

I'd say Andy Reid ...the best eligible set piece takers.

True, but Reid has actually disappointed in this regard in the past, except maybe for direct shots on goal.

We did have one coner from our RHS that caused big trouble near the end. Too many "clever" short corners led down blind alleys.

[jmurphyc]

We did have one coner from our RHS that caused big trouble near the end. Too many "clever" short corners led down blind alleys.

Yeah. Short corners seem good in theory - drawing men out of the box and leaving more space for the attacking players - but they rarely seem to work. Putting it straight in is usually much more effective.

[Drumcondra 69er]

Yeah. Short corners seem good in theory - drawing men out of the box and leaving more space for the attacking players - but they rarely seem to work. Putting it straight in is usually much more effective.

Never work often enough to be viable for me. Set plays were the most disapointing aspect of the game for me bar the defending for the goal. We had 10 corners to their one and made a balls of most of them. We saw the problems that Folan caused in the air for the goal and Keane's chance in stoppage time so it was criminal to waste the opportunities we had to exploit that. Could have been the difference between winning and drawing the game.

[TheRealMuller]

we had two freee kicks that were rolled short outside the box, both players looked nearly surprised to be getting the ball in that position, what is the point of taking freekicks short if they have not been practiced???

[irishultra]

is fahey a good set peice taker? hes someone you'd think would be class but i don't know, i seen him score a few free kicks.

[LFCSixty/Eighty]

Watched the game again last night and Gibson hit the first man with THREE set pieces when he came on. That is just criminal.

[jmurphyc]

we had two freee kicks that were rolled short outside the box, both players looked nearly surprised to be getting the ball in that position, what is the point of taking freekicks short if they have not been practiced???

I got the feeling during the game that Trapattoni had experimented with them in training only for the players to not be good enough to execute them in the match. I doubt that we'd have used the variety of free kicks that we did having not practiced them during taining. That's just my opinion though.

[LFCSixty/Eighty]

I doubt that we'd have used the variety of free kicks that we did having not practiced them during taining. That's just my opinion though.

I have to agree. Not quite sure why this was the case but it happened way too often to suggest it was 'off the cuff' from the players.

[lionelhutz]

I've seen Whelan swing in set pieces for Stoke and they've been consistently good. Don't know why he wasn't taking them Wednesday. Hunts delivery was awful most of the time

[tetsujin1979]

Despite some of these comments, I think we've improved our set pieces under Trapattoni. Definitely we're scoring from more of them

[jmurphyc]

Despite some of these comments, I think we've improved our set pieces under Trapattoni. Definitely we're scoring from more of them

We probably have improved (can't remember them that well during Staunton's time, which I'll assume is a bad thing) but there is still definitely room for improvement. Against superior footballing sides a well worked set piece could work a lot better than attempting to play through that team.

I would definitely say we've improved defensively though. We look quite coherent when defending them whereas under Staunton we generally looked in complete disarray.