Corners seems to cause a lot of trouble for us. Before the manure game we knew how they could punish us - we had seen Silvestre's 2 headers which finished off Liverpool. (Well, unfortunately they were given the 1st goal anyway and didn't create much.) We have had this problem for a while, the Panathinaikos goal didn't coma as a surprise and I feared the worst on Soton's corners. We have a problem in this department particularly when Sol is not playing. I haven't been able to see replays of the Soton goals yesterday and can't comment on who was at fault, but maybe we should employ George Graham to work with the back 4 and sort them out (joking) in the Dixon-Adams-Bould-Winterburn days we were strong in the air.
I know I have noticed that we rarely score on set pieces NOR do we seem to defend well against them. I pray that Arsene focuses on this issue in training.
I think we definately need to work on our set pieces on the defensive side. I don't know the stats, but many of the goals have been scored in the air. Toure, Edu & Cygan have all been poor on marking. So the question is what are we missing in there. Right now it's the coverage on the players. Hopefully Wenger has something in mind before the next match.
I hope you're right. I also think that we've missed Gilberto's defensive headers. Cesc is awesome on the ball, but he's still to small to have an impact in the air when the penalty area is crowded.
Great thread, and timely given what happened against the Greeks in the last CL fixture. We are absolutely insecure when defending set pieces and similarly fail to threaten consistently from attacking set pieces. In both scenarios, I think we suffer from an over-reliance on Sol. He's really the lynchpin defensively and the only one who regularly threatens from free kicks and corners. He can't be everywhere on defense, and he's the obvious man for the opposition to double up on in attacking situations. Defensively, there's still a communication gap. We seem confused as to marking assignments in the box, and there's still a lack of clarity about when Jens will come for crosses and when he will sit back (seems in either situation we lose - witness Panathinaikos AND Southampton). There's also a lack of aggression - no challenge against the Greeks and a very weak challenge (if you can call it that) from Vieira against Delap before we conceded the second to the Saints. Offensively, I'm hoping Van Persie brings some options in the air besides Sol. Watching him for Feyenoord, he is skilled in the air and big (if slight). Also, am I only one who has noticed Henry using his head more? If memory serves, he scored one early on this season from his head, and he's had some solid headers every few games that were only slightly off target (even yesterday).
Agree with pretty much everything said. Set pieces are a definite worry right now. Henry scored a header against Norwich, IIRC.
Yoss- Seems like we're on the same wavelength today (saw your post on the "why I follow Arse" thread).
Maybe so. I am a DC United fan as far as MLS is concerned. Love those Silverbacks but the A-League just isn't quite the same.