I can see the value of bringing Drogs back to defend a corner but simply cannot understand why we bring everyone back to defend. When the ball is cleared up field it simply goes to the opposition and we are under pressure again. If you leave at least one player on the halfway line you have a chance of mounting an attack from this player or they can hold up play (Makalele) until help arrives. Is it the Italian over-defensive way of playing?

Ive always thought we should leave Ash Cole up field, he is possibly the fastest player we have and could cause some problems for the opposition. But he is the player who marks near post so I presume he is too valuable at that.

Leave Ramires up field, he may not be the strongest, but if he has space to run, he'll be hard to stop.

It doesn't matter. We will defend the set piece and start our break, we will pass it up to lampard and he will ALWAYS pass it backwards or to the side and stop our break. We never get to our attack because lampard has been stopping them. I re-watched the game. There was only one time he went forward. He hurt us more than Boswinga did.

It doesn't matter. We will defend the set piece and start our break, we will pass it up to lampard and he will ALWAYS pass it backwards or to the side and stop our break. We never get to our attack because lampard has been stopping them. I re-watched the game. There was only one time he went forward. He hurt us more than Boswinga did.

Lampard hurt us? What a strange way to put it. Similarly "we never get to our attack because lampard has been stopping them" which makes it sound for all intents and purposes as if Frank was deliberately sabotaging any attacking impetus we might have gained.

I haven't rewatched the game, I seldom do, but my guess is that if Frank was passing either backwards or sideways, this was because it was what looked to be the best available option. This could be down to a lack of understanding, players not getting themselves into suitable positions, players not being where he'd expect them to be. It also often makes sense to pass backwards in order to give other players time to get forward.

And so on.

Dunno about defending corners, how about taking them? How many, no matter who takes them fail to beat the first defender is unbeleivable, do they only practice at Cobham and is the corner flag there further away than at SB?

There is no doubt games between top teams often come down to set pieces. When it involves Chelsea and Arsenal we tend to come out on top defending against corners because of a difference in height and physique. I'm often amazed at the number of times we fail to cover the back post. It has become more frequent recently. I would like to see Ashley take up that position once again.

A famous manager, I've forgotten who, is quoted as follows "Any team that fails to cover its back post on corner kicks deserves to be scored against"

My preference for defending set pieces would be to man mark all opposition players first and foremost. Everything else depends on how many opposition players there are to deal with. Ideally, we'd have a man on each post, Drogba to just attack the ball, and at least 1 pacey player to clear towards.

I remember Jose liked to leave 2 players forward when defending corners. It kept opposition defenders on their toes.

Agree that we should have perhaps a couple of players staying up to give us a good chance to counter attack.

Perhaps Scolari had the right idea by not having players at the posts ;)

As for us taking the corners I really think it's something we need to work on. It's not just this season, but it's been far from great for several seasons. I do think that is one of the reasons JT doesn't score much anymore.

With all the aerial threat we have in Ivan, JT, Luiz, Alex and Drogba (and even Malouda) we should use that to our advantage.

We also have people who can shoot the ball, so we don't always have to put the ball into the box.

Too few works hard on set pieces if you ask me. I've seen a few teams do it and to some success.

For instance, did you know that Roma teaches the kids who fetches the balls to work really fast so that on corners and throw ins and such they can execute them very early, before their opponents have organised themselves. Saw it against Juventus a couple of seasons ago and it really caused some havoc.