Evolving set pieces

Much has been discussed about our kick off at the hun hut on Sunday, was a minor , yet hugely effective, tactical play which got me thinking about set pieces in general. Normally anything 30 yards from goal most teams will have a pop at goal- that’s basically the unwritten accepted rule and whilst everyone loves seeing one hit the top corner, if we’re being honest, the conversion rate is very poor. This is across the board, not just at Celtic. So my question is why hasnt the game advanced to a point where a free kick from 30 yards results in a goal More often than not? If you think about it , these players train with the same team and coaches every single day. There should be a dedicated play book which the players drill 100 times a day so they know it in their sleep. the manager then shouts which play to use during a match if they ever get a free kick close to goal. I’m not talking about a simple dummy by a player, I’m talking 5/6 players synchronising a play that any opposition team would be helpless to do anything about if executed correctly. You occasionally on soccer am see a clip of a crazy play a lower league team has pulled off and everyone says “wow that’s awesome”. So why hasn’t this been taken to the next level? With the resources top clubs like we have, we should have a book full of these for matches. For what it’s worth I think that’s how the game will evolve in the future.

 

Set piece coaches will become a big thing in the next decade IMO.

There’s a throw in coach who works with a few clubs. Liverpool, Midtjylland etc. With Bauer’s throw, and the height in our team we should be looking into it.

 

Bauers throw could be an absolute weapon with a bit of coaching!

Dont see him displacing Elhamed though.

 

Aye, I’m surprised at how set pieces are looked down upon by some managers. England’s best world cup in ages was literally down to that.

Pretty much our 3 CL Last 16 runs we were deadly from set pieces. Same with Martin O’Neill’s team, absolutely terrifying from set pieces.

It can be a very good leveller between teams where the gap in play is miles apart.

 

What part of the United States do you hail from?

The problem with allocating such precious tactical time is once you've seen it once it's easier to counter than pull off.

Probably the same way American Gridiron (will not call that football ever) is so boring.

 

Canny mind who it was but there was an Italian team who were * amazing at creating chances from throw ins. Wasn’t even long throws, they just had 3 2/3 standing close to the thrower and then ran in different directions and done a 1-2 and were in behind.

I honestly thought Lennon would’ve targeted a set piece specialist in the summer.

 

I'd be happy if we started taking corner's and scoring from more than 1 in 20

 

There’s that video of them creating chances from throw ins.



So * simple and effective for creating opportunities out of nothing.

 

Thing is, a team has to have set piece takers that have a certain level of quality, to even start thinking about set pieces as a weapon. In our current team, only Griffiths can take indirect free kicks and corners well. He's not playing, though. before Moritz, the last man with a solid throw-in was Mulgrew. We do not go out of our way to intentionally seek set piece specialists to sign.

Also, our CB-s are poor headers of the ball.

 

I’m Glasgow mate. Lived in NY for 4 years though and the only sport worth watching was American football. The tactical element of that game is pretty impressive

 

It’s significantly worse than one in twenty mate. Which again highlights my point.

 

I’m not talking about having a dedicated set piece expert. I’m talking about the team running plays when 30 yards from goal that would be very hard to defend against if correctly executed. Simple passes and movement with fake runs, dummy’s etc. If its coached correctly you don’t need a specific player to plant a ball in the top corner from
30 yards or perfectly on a defenders head.

 

That''s what I was implying, 1 in 20 would be an improvement. I agree that set pieces should be worked on.

 

Simple as * and something we never, ever do. Half the time we don’t even look for the ball. Got slightly better under Lenny for that but it was literally my biggest criticism of Rodgers team. Everycunt stopped when the ball went out and it took us like 20 seconds of letting them get organised to get the ball back in play.

 

This part was especially brutal because of our league setup still using the one ball system, it really does my * box in.

 

That’s quality.

 

Absolutely nailed on.

 

Simple as * yet you never see it being done.

 

A good set piece needs a good set piece taker and we don’t have one

 

I'm quite modest so won't go to OTT, but when I played I had one of the best throw ins on the planet

Great tool