Thursday 24 August 2017

What's going on with AFCB defending corners?

It doesn't seem to matter who is in the back four and who is in goal, defending corners for the Cherries is a team matter and it's still not very good. Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall have to look more closely at what is going on at these corners because if zonal marking, as suspected, is being used it isn't working at all.
Asmir Begovic has not found it easy to keep any clean sheets.
Birmingham City must have been amazed at how easily they were gifted their goal to go 1-0 up in the league cup tie. You could say that WBA didn't have to work much harder for their lead a few weeks ago as well. Bournemouth could do with a corner expert drilling the side on a regular basis if the players can't grasp what  their job is when players start moving around and opposing players are allowed to run free.

The Cherries are not a tall team and have always been suspect when a good delivery is made in their box, but they have been totally unorganised and not just for the corners when goals have resulted, but just about on every corner that they have had to defend. It suggests that there is something very wrong with the way the team is trying to defend the corners and free kicks that are angled into the box. I still wonder why teams move away from the idea that everyone has his man and those that don't are the two on the posts. Sometimes the old ways were done for a reason, and at least it is less confusing for the players.
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Obviously, it is easier for your Afobes and Cooks to win headers that it is for Ryan Fraser or Jermain Defoe, but a well timed jump can still put attackers off from getting a good clean contact, and at times AFCB don't have anyone anywhere near challenging for the ball in areas where they should.

Having a confident goalkeeper will also help, but it would be wrong to load all of the poor defending at corners down to just the keepers. AFCB really need to do some work on this as it is happening every week now.

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