Goals conceded from crosses!

[lostsoul]

I would say this season`s downfall is that we can not defend crosses. I wonder how many goals have been scored from crosses, this just isnt Paul Smiths fault with his lack of ability to come for the ball but something the whole team has been unable to cope with. Everytime i see a corner or a ball crossed into the box, i fear the worst.

Why Why Why cant we do the simple thing by staying strong to clear the ball. The majority of the goals we have been conceded since Christmas have been ridiculously sloppy, take the first 3 goals at the weekend. All the goals derby scored against us et etc

 

[Johnny Bravo]

To an extent I agree but think maybe more the problem is second crosses when the defence doesn't push out. I thought this might be an experience thing but we seem worse at pushing out when Breckin plays. We need someone to take charge at the back which nobody does, even when wearing the armband. Wes is the only one who ever makes a push out call but even he doesn't do it often or forcefully enough, he needs to be screaming it to people to the extent me nearly taking their head off.

 

[JtheNorwegianRed]

The problem is that we aren't able to clear the second or the third ball that's followed by a cross into the box... We need to work on hoofing the ball out of there! But people will blame Billy Davies for playing hoofball if we clear the ball, so... I don't know.

 

[tricky_tree1982]

To an extent I agree but think maybe more the problem is second crosses when the defence doesn't push out. I thought this might be an experience thing but we seem worse at pushing out when Breckin plays. We need someone to take charge at the back which nobody does, even when wearing the armband. Wes is the only one who ever makes a push out call but even he doesn't do it often or forcefully enough, he needs to be screaming it to people to the extent me nearly taking their head off.

Couldn't agree more. We are far too slow pushing the defence out, although Smithy isn't great at giving them orders to push out (not having a dig). Oh and when WIlson plays we have one less defender to deal with a cross as he's a robot and doesn't move!

 

[Johnny Bravo]

I can't get the image of Kelvin doing the robot dance from the comic relief Smithy/England thing now.

Everyone needs to be shouting at each other to push out from Smith to Earnshaw if he's back defending.

 

[Dadford]

It's far easier for an attacker to attack a cross in the air than a defender to defend it. The keeper should take the lead role for the defending team, he can get higher (if they can lift their arms) , should be facing the play and gets protected by the officials.

 

[tricky_tree1982]

It's far easier for an attacker to attack a cross in the air than a defender to defend it. The keeper should take the lead role for the defending team, he can get higher (if they can lift their arms) , should be facing the play and gets protected by the officials.

You're fogetting one thing! Smithy's superglued boots just don't come off the goaline!

 

[toptrunk]

The easiest place organisationally to stop a cross is at source, this is the job of the full back - but we've only had one of those for about four games this season so that is the biggest problem.

The resposibility when it comes to the second ball is that of the midfield. For the majority of this season we have been playing a combination of Perch, McGugan, and Cohen in the middle of the park. Cohen can be a bit of a headless chicken at times, great energy and effort but his positional sense can certainly be questioned. Perch is similar when in the holding role and has a tendency to drop too deep into the box for the initial cross and so unable to clear the second ball from the edge. McGugan is usually walking towards goal on the centre circle sulking about the failure of his fifteenth stepover which led to the attack in the first place.

The best we have played in this regard this season was against Swansea at home where the goal conceded was essentially a result of a great throughball and some shambolic work by the back four following that. Aside from that incident we were excellent at winning the second ball.

Central midfield that day? Osbourne and the Mousse, two natural and good holding midfielders, think England with both Ince and Batty - it is a very solid system which served us very well, and given some of the attacking flare we (apparently) possess one which could serve us very well in the run in......... If they were both fit, which they're not

 

[FBS]

It is a case of we need to push out faster. It seems the only person who shouts for this is Wes, but as he is busy dealing with the ball coming back in we need someone else to communicate this as well. Breckin use to be good at this last season

 

[adam09]

It's far easier for an attacker to attack a cross in the air than a defender to defend it. The keeper should take the lead role for the defending team, he can get higher (if they can lift their arms) , should be facing the play and gets protected by the officials.

Always depends on where the ball is, really. The majority of crosses haven't been in reaching distance for a keeper. As pointed out already, we're just terrible at clearing the ball effectively.

Watch any of the more established CCC teams and how they clear the ball 99% of the time. The goals we conceeded at Burnley summed up how bad we are at it!

 

[LOOMIS]

The easiest place organisationally to stop a cross is at source, this is the job of the full back - but we've only had one of those for about four games this season so that is the biggest problem.

The resposibility when it comes to the second ball is that of the midfield. For the majority of this season we have been playing a combination of Perch, McGugan, and Cohen in the middle of the park. Cohen can be a bit of a headless chicken at times, great energy and effort but his positional sense can certainly be questioned. Perch is similar when in the holding role and has a tendency to drop too deep into the box for the initial cross and so unable to clear the second ball from the edge. McGugan is usually walking towards goal on the centre circle sulking about the failure of his fifteenth stepover which led to the attack in the first place.

The best we have played in this regard this season was against Swansea at home where the goal conceded was essentially a result of a great throughball and some shambolic work by the back four following that. Aside from that incident we were excellent at winning the second ball.

Central midfield that day? Osbourne and the Mousse, two natural and good holding midfielders, think England with both Ince and Batty - it is a very solid system which served us very well, and given some of the attacking flare we (apparently) possess one which could serve us very well in the run in......... If they were both fit, which they're not

Spot on.

In addition, how many needless free-kicks have we given away in dangerous positions just outside the penalty area and failed to defend, leading to goals? At least eight in the home games I have seen this season have we conceded in this manner. The problem is that we never learn from our mistakes, and that is the fundamental reason that we will probably be relegated.