Arsene Wenger has admitted that Arsenal’s lack of threat from corners is a concern, and said it’s something the team will be working on this week.
The Gunners had 15 corners against Sp*rs on Saturday, and 6 after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had equalised, but failed to really trouble the vistitors with any of them.
“It’s a concern,” said Wenger. “We have lots of room for improvement and we need to do that quickly.
“If you go anywhere in the world and have 15 corners against you, you will concede because they should be so difficult to defend.”
While Wenger had praise for Younes Kaboul and Jan Vertonghen, most of it comes down to the inconsistent, erratic delivery from the Arsenal players.
A dangerous corner whipped in with pace and curl is difficult to defend, a tame floater makes it easy for the opposition defence. As for the ones we clump out to the far side of the pitch for a throw, the less said the better.
Some serious work needs to be done on the training ground this week, that’s for sure, because right now we look more likely to concede from a break from our own corner than score ourselves.
Finally someone dared to speak of it. I am already fine with Arsenals come-to-nothing corner attempts.
Giroud will make a massive difference at set pieces when he returns both attacking and defending. In games that we dominate he is a real plus.
Spot on. Giroud and Mertescielny pose real aerial threat on set pieces. With only two of them, it becomes too easy to defend on them, especially when the rest of our team is not really dominant in the air.
With our current line-ups, I’d rather play them low to keep possession and don’t risk a counter tbh.
Is it maybe possible to find some way to threaten at corners in games where we aren’t dominating? Personally I’d rather a goal from a corner to nick 1-0 away at Shite Hart Lane or Stamford Bridge than a goal to make the score 4-0 at home against some team in the bottom half of the table.
It doesn’t tackle the issue but I think we should try a few short corners and work in from there. When we do get a corner I expect our central defenders to score and not our attacks, not sure why.
It amazes me how people get so excited and overworked about things that matter so little in the scheme of things.
How many goals in the premier league come from corners? The average corner is worth 0.022 goals, or put another way a team can expect to score a goal from a corner every 10 games. Better to take a short corner, retain possession and manufacture a chance in open play. Ask Pep if you don’t believe me.
I think people are more worried about the opposition counter attacks that comes from our corners…
Always felt the Ox was our best corner taker – really whips them in with speed.
Obviously helps if others are attacking the ball…
I’m not convinced that we even practice corners. We don’t even know who our main corner taker is!
It’s kinda like in Sunday League when that bloke who usually takes them is too hungover from last night to play so everyone who’s not tall gets to have a go haha.
My thought exactly. It is not only the Spurs game, almost all our corners since the season started are lame and lacks any power or directness what so ever. What makes it even painful is that you want to close your eyes when we are the ones defending corners;we are all over the place. Sort it out guys.
Does anyone have any stats about our conversion rates for corners compared to other teams, perhaps also stats for the ones we concede too?
And to think that we are experts at conceding goals from corners is surprising. Whenever Arsenal concedes a corner i get scared to death.
we only have 4 players sometimes 3 players in the box when taking corners, who does that…
you need solid numbers in there.
especially because we always look so vulnerable to counter attacks anyway… we might as well load proper players in there.
Our whole organization on corners need work.
And conversely we need to put some of our quick attacking players on the half way line when defending them to suck opposition players out of our box. I’ve never seen what having the likes of Cazorla or Walcott adds to us defending set pieces, in fact it just enables our opponents to load up our box with tall players and create unnessecary mismatches
We have struggled with corners since Brian mar wood left
Look, time and time again I have viewed this shining example of a true Arsenal blog that runs rings over it’s opposition (no names mentioned) have its contributing audience fall victim to the same emotionally based drivel that I mute the television to get away from when watching Arsenal games! Just two extremes. Yes, we have a decent squad and a ‘friendly’, ‘warm’ and ‘family’ like atmosphere around the club, but who gives a damn when it causes us to be too afraid to critically dissect our team.. I’ll tell you something if I catch my little cousin smoking a… Read more »
Thanks for your insights into our woeful Corner-situation 😉
I match your sarcasm with a swig of irony, my comment may seem somewhat irrelevant but since this was my first post and there is no alternative means by which I can introduce myself I’m sure I can be forgiven.
When we have a corner I actually feel fine settling for the second ball, i.e the one the opposing team heads out, geting clumped back in by an Arsenal player, since it gives us more time to prevent the counter. Scoring from one? Ha.
Our corner kicks and dead ball situations are all together disappointing.
Players should spend more hours practising these dead ball situations.
But no…some of our players spend hours on instagram.
podolski…im looking at you!
you do realize that it takes approximately 10 seconds to take a picture and upload it on Instagram?
that being said, I think Podolski is beyond being able to help our team really, and he’s my favourite human being in football.
It’s encouraging that Wenger recognizes we have a problem, anyway.
When defending against Arsenal, just concede the corner. You get a free counter-attack opportunity.
Corners used to be an indication of attacking dominance. Corners used to be a significant opportunity at a threat on goal. Corners used to be deliberately played for in order to force a threat on goal. Corners now give the defending side a genuine counter-attacking opportunity as both CBs are out of position. Corners now are often overhit or never get passed the first defender. Corners now are such a non-threat that defenders are only too happy to concede them to us. Corners now appear to be a complete waste of time. The thing I don’t get is that this… Read more »
I thought we’ve been pretty efficient at corners during the past two years.
The only missing element now is Giroud.
Your post is pretty valid for this year though.
I agree that we miss ham, but I can’t see how the poor delivery from corners can be explained by him not being in there.
I love ham
Can’t just this year as I’ve been thinking it for at least three. Remember when R*P and Cesc used to take corners and how we all said (at the time) “that’s pretty stupid”.
The thing is … we’ve players who can kick a cross-field ball fifty yards landing on a sixpence.
As for your Giroud point …Want to tell me how many headed goals-from-corners we’ve scored in the last three years? (Not a rhetorical question.)
Flank the ball on Koscielnys head and goal… so easy…
Someone put this bloke in charge. He gets it.
Oh…. comeback soon Giroud ur ar the best header in the league as of nw. Wen Giroud returns he will still top arsenal scoring chart like it or hate it
All our matches this season including the Villa game have been underpar for me. Increased expectations perhaps….four draws and two wins is not great form……add the Dortmund defeat and its very patchy form. I fully expect a loss to Chelsea bcos they simply look a much better outfit ….something is missing….no defensive solidity …yet. Our much celebrated attack is struggling…..Wenger can’t seem to make up his mind which formation to play…….he’s a very stubborn man and I think he’s made up his mind about the 4-1-4-1……at the moment we don’t look better than we were last season but thankfully neither… Read more »
Theo! Theo! Theo!
Speed matters. Think the problem with Ozil/Cazorla taking corners is not their precision but that the ball moves too slow. On the other hand Theo sure knows how to twat a ball.
Heh. Even when I played 4th division football in Norway we had a couple of blokes practising Corner’s alot. And quite frankly, they we’re probably better at it than anyone at Arsenal when I think about it. Hehe
That is just sad :p
Lots of sorting out to do. Not only corners. Our transition is still slow. Here we were rejoicing about the pace we now have in the team but its not showing on the pitch apart from the Villa game. Our formation and player selection needs sorting too if you ask me. I feel Sanchez should not have played the whole Soton game if that meant benching him on Saturday. Ramsey and Wilshere doesn’t seem to be working. Sacrificing Ozil to accomodate them both is hurting the team – sorting required. I don’t think Coquelin would do worse than Flamini in… Read more »
Our fragility in defending corners is somewhat corelated with our wastefulness in attacking corners. I mean, we are just not that good in attacking the first ball in, ia it mental factor or tactical factor?
Our corners have never been effective since the past 2-3 years and not only attacking wise our ability to defend corners in very very poor ( recent Demichelis goal vs Us ) We have like the tallest player in the Prem in Mert , Kos attacks the ball well , Welbeck is good , Chambers can contribute surely. That’s 4 players for attacking while in Ozil and Sanchez are two world class dead ball specialists. Time to scrap zonal marking and get a combination of man to man and zonal marking. Plus Giroud and Sanogo must be good aswell Serious… Read more »
Only a brave man can tip Arsenal to get a point this weekend let alone three. Though My thinking is this: it the Totts, as bad as they are, can come to Emirates and take a point, then we can do same at Stamford Bridge.
Let me put it here early; I am certain we will get a result there. The worst we do will be a draw. I am confident. I only hope we come out of the Gala game unscathed injury wise.
ARSENAL WILL NOT LOSE AT STAMFORD BRIDGE ON SUNDAY. Only believe.
Our corners have been shite for years….in fact our crossing in general has been awful for years! ….and even worse without Sagna, who could get a decent one over now and then!
That is a beautiful picture of Ozil.
Our poorly taken corners often lead to dangerous counter attacks the other way with a ball headed out strongly with no opposition. Ozil’s corners are often taken the other direction as he plays a long, loopy ball that overshoots many of our players in the box and gives the defenders time to read it and attack it. I prefer the dipping, driven corners that give us a chance to get between defenders and you just have to redirect it vs really power it with a softer kick. The type that RVP used to take and Walcott does to an extent.
For the past five seasons, Arsenal have averaged 10.6 goals/season from set pieces while the other top four teams have averaged 16.5. We have finished as high as 8th and as low as 17th in the league for goals scored from set pieces. Last season, Cazorla scored our first and only goal from a direct free kick in the FA Cup final. While knowing actual conversion rates would be necessary to give a better idea of how efficient or inefficient we are from set pieces, the gross numbers indicate that this has been issue for a while.
Spot on mate.
When you have a team full of midgets you cant do much defending or converting set pieces, that is the bottom like. No way our short azzes outjump a team with good height like Chelsea or ManC even Spurs!
Arsene’s a real piece of work. He complains we are shit at corners, fact any casual premier league enthusiast has known for seasons and which he as the coach has done fuck all about all this time. I remember a game 2 seasons ago we had about 24 corners and converted none. That same season we had 260 corner kicks in total and were only able to convert 4. Stats such as this call for serious questions to be asked of the coach and team as a whole. Somehow that fact escaped his notice then
i am so happy Wenger himself is the one saying this. We get corners but we hardly trouble opposition keepers talkless of converting them. Same way i have thought deeply how its only Arsenal players that don’t take shots at the edge of the 18 yard box. Always wanting to score the perfect or television goals. Wish we could just be flexible enough during matches when the chips are down.
For eight years we’ve scored the fewest goals from corners in the league. It’s negligence that we’re only working on it now
Also need to work on defending corners!! Fukin basics. £8m p.a.?
Rubbish coach.is it now you just realize the way your players played their corners? Whereby team like West brom can score from a corners talkless of Chelsea, M.City.