Set Pieces

Remember how strong Argyle were at set pieces under Sturrock ? He was a manager who absolutely knew the formula for getting a team promoted from the lower leagues.

I remember Paul Wotton saying that Sturrock made them practice set piece routines over and over again in training to a point that was almost ridiculous.

We need something like that now.

I said during the last game, I can’t remember the last set piece we scored from.

The OP has made a very good point.
I don’t see why Mayor always stands next to Grant shaping to take free kicks, but never takes one and never receives a short one either - it’s a complete waste of a body that could get on the end of it!
We used to have one or two alternative routines, but seem to have dropped these too.
In the absence of G Cooper, Grant is clearly the best one to take them, but they all seem to come to nothing lately. Practice required!

I think all our set piece training is spent on defending them.

Unless we're up against a team that is particularly poor at defending crosses/long corners, I think we should play them short more often.

Dan Ellard":jlye3r2v said:

Unless we're up against a team that is particularly poor at defending crosses/long corners, I think we should play them short more often.

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Yes I agree.
Worst of all is when the free-kick is scuffed slightly and hits the first defender - not really excusable at any level.

There is a lot of statistical analysis regarding the number of goals scored from set pieces - free kicks and corners.

As for free kicks the most extensive recent analysis is from the MLS where in one season 272 goals were scored from 12,728 free kicks - which equates to about 1 in 47. If you look at Ward - Prowse (along with Fernandez) perhaps the best direct free kick taker around the best he has achieved is a conversion rate of 1 in 8 - 12.5%.

With regard to betting analysis sites for corners the average conversion rate is 1.5% direct from a corner ( direct - a first touch shot or header) to just under 5% (first, second or third touch). The general range is 1 in 20 to 1 in 45 for a goal to be scored from a corner Argyle have had 135 corners in League 1 (3rd highest) or 5.91 per game.

Argyle have scored 31 goals in League 1 - but according to the data the expectation of scoring from set pieces is much lower than many people would think. The best expectation is that Argyle would have scored 7 goals from a corner (first, second or third touch) in League 1 this season.

My observations are that Argyle have improved this season on set pieces. Grant is our best exponent of free kicks (although Mayor's dummy run effort convinces no-one). Cooper last season tended to over kick free kicks from promising positions. Our corners have definitely improved with a variety of takers and short and long options. I'll leave it to others to ascertain whether the goals scored are better than expectations. Opponents, in my view, would have great difficulty in identifying a typical corner routine from Argyle, but less so from a free kick.

As always there's room for more work on the training ground but I do not think that our ability to score from set pieces is top of the priority list for improvement if we are going to progress closer to a Play-Off position. Defensive robustness and taking clear-cut chances (the xG chances) would achieve better outcomes and consequently results or 'pointage' as Luggy used to call it.

We have no great height up front. We have ball carriers.

One reason why Nouble comes on near the end is to assist the defence when we are defending a lead or drawing and to add to the forward height as a target man when we are behind.

We do not have the personnel to take advantage of any height advantage needed for free kicks or corners.

I'm not sure why we seem to have abandoned our short corner routines which I felt were largely effective last season.

Tugboat":jqvubjkh said:

I think all our set piece training is spent on defending them.

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:funny: We havnt seen the evidence of that yet though have we

Nice one Tuggers

Delivery of set pieces is one part of the action but it also needs players in attacking positions to do their part.
Currently, I believe that Conor Grant delivers some ‘inviting’ set pieces but we do not seem to have the ‘attackers/attacking defenders’ capable of winning the aerial challenges and directing their headers either powerfully or accurately towards goal or into a danger area for a colleague to convert.
With regard to direct free kicks, again Grant or George Cooper, when fit, are our best options but, listening to the best free kick specialists, the only way to improve this is practice, practice and yet more practice.

jimsing":iezjxabo said:

One reason why Nouble comes on near the end is to assist the defence when we are defending a lead or drawing and to add to the forward height as a target man when we are behind.

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Funny you should mention this, I was wondering if our Frank could, possibly, be 'converted' into a central defender?
His usefulness up front (apart from running down the clock) would mainly be as a target man. But, as we don't lump balls forward, this potential aspect of his game is largely untested.
Could he do a job alongside Opoku and Watts? Just wondering.

Those of us with long memories might remember striker Robbie Turner playing as an emergency centre back once or twice, whilst centre back Mick Heathcoate was sometimes used as a striker.
Somehow I think Frank Nouble could be a bit clumsy in the tackle and would risk giving away penalties- but you never know. Lowe has to find space for all these strikers somewhere !

gaspargomez":3iiqzkze said:

Those of us with long memories might remember striker Robbie Turner playing as an emergency centre back once or twice, whilst centre back Mick Heathcoate was sometimes used as a striker.
Somehow I think Frank Nouble could be a bit clumsy in the tackle and would risk giving away penalties- but you never know. Lowe has to find space for all these strikers somewhere !

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Two words: George ..... Foster!!