Why Are We So Dreadful From Corners & Free Kicks?

One thing the vast majority of Bolton fans agree on is the standard of corners and free kicks is appalling.

I think we had around 10 corners on Saturday and I can't remember one that actually looked dangerous. In fact, I can't remember many beating the first defender. What is so fooking difficult about crossing a ball into the box under no pressure?

So I thought I would try it out for myself. I dragged Eric to the local park and I tried taking ten corners, five from one side and five from the other. Seven of them were in the danger zone and Wheater or Beevers would have buried them. So if I can get 7/10 in the right place, why can't a professional footballer?

FFS, even Eric got 4/10 in the danger zone and he was using his 19 incher.

We've been rubbish at set plays for years now, what is Evans doing to address this problem? Very little by the looks of things. When your forwards can't shoot straight a few goals from corners would help.

Instead of telling us the "lads are in great spirits" and other such nonsense, why not tell us why no one in the team appears to be able to cross a ball.

Evans out.

And what's all this queueing up in the box at corners. Let's not overthink it boys.

boltonbonce wrote:And what's all this queueing up in the box at corners. Let's not overthink it boys.

years ago at burnden park every corner was knocked on from a player closest to the corner flag it always went over the defence and bolton nodded the ball into the goal, maybe its time for the old tactics book to be read by our boss.

dutchwhites63 wrote:
years ago at burnden park every corner was knocked on from a player closest to the corner flag it always went over the defence and bolton nodded the ball into the goal, maybe its time for the old tactics book to be read by our boss.

forgot to mention those new fangled silly tactics, if you have a four man wall in front of your goal, there is always a d-head  that goes and lies down behind the defenders.

Ii really is a big problem, part of the reason why our goals for is so low. Not beating the first man really shouldn't happen but its prolific. Seems a long time since Wynn Davies was in the box and a goal threat on every set piece.

Agree with all of that but the other thing that drives me mad is that they are all floated in. Nobody thinks to spear them in hard so that it’s almost impossible for defenders to touch the ball for fear of an own goal. You’d think since they don’t spend time on shooting practise they could use it on set pieces instead wouldn’t you?

The corners were worse than ever last weekend. However I think we were trying the near post flick on. It worked in training but apparently not in the match.

I have to say though that crossing is easy. Even playing lower league (very low) I was expected to cross better than that. And I did. Always. I just can't fathom why it seems so hard to get right!