Tuesday 15 December 2015

The Cherries are now the corner specialists

It's funny how the Cherries were having lots of corners and yet not seeing hardly any shots at goal resulting from them in the early part of this season. It is clear that Eddie Howe and his staff have looked at that and decided that they have to change what they do with corners and free kicks as they are such an important part of the game and AFCB get a lot of opportunities from them. The Cherries have now scored from three corners in their last two games.
The Cherries' behind the scenes work is paying off.
I am not sure if the coaching staff will be so pleased with all the close attention and analysis that the pundits are now giving to AFCB corners. We've seen the bouncing ball and foot stamp routines for many years, and I expect we'll see a few new signals and changed ones just to mess up those who think they have sussed what Bournemouth are up to when Matt Ritchie and Junior Stanislas go over to the corners.

I like the way that the side is viewing such opportunities as a shot to nothing. It is part of the modern game to get defenders into positions where they don't like to be and to ensure that your strikers will get the first sight of the ball as it comes into the box This pre-rehearsed set of routines are match winning opportunities and while they often don't work it is something very special when they do come off. Gone are the days when the ball is just lobbed in and the tallest defender just hopes to get his head on it. Why trust to luck when you can ensure that someone is going to get to the ball first with a well practised move?

I don't think the Cherries will come up with another 10 different corner routines but slight variations on a theme will work well. While AFCB are known for their flowing football it is somehow good to know that they have other ways of winning games. 

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