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A quick note: I hate the fact that the Premier League doesn't have a youtube channel or a pay and subscribe HD option for highlight packages..
Background
In 2012/13 Man City were a middling team at defending corners. Data taken from StatsBomb shows Man City were the 12th best team at preventing shots from corners (80.46% of corners City conceded did not result in a shot against). City were the 10th best team in terms of goals conceded from corners and the 13th best team in terms of conceded% (goals against/corners against).
A chart for Corner conversion% and Prevention%
None of these statistics are particularly bad, but nor are they particularly good. Not only is height, which City have, important when defending corners but the defensive scheme and concentration are two other vital attributes that are needed.
Where It Wrong Against Cardiff
Many people will talk about a breakdown of zonal marking or man-to-man marking but it appears that City ran a hybrid defensive setup on corners versus Cardiff, we'll get to that later.
The over-riding feeling that I have about corners is that sometimes, in any one game, the delivery is just of such high quality that it becomes almost impossible to defend.
Obviously, over a season some teams are better at defending corners than others, but as of now I don't know why Chelsea were so effective at preventing opposition goals from corners, or why Swansea were so bad. Some of it is tactical setup, some of it is luck.
Cardiff 2-1
Now, we are going to focus on City's starting shape for Cardiff's 1st goal from a corner.
1
This is City's starting position:
- One man on the back post.
- Man-to-man in the center.
- A two man 'zonal' barrier at the near post.
This is the City shape at the point of delivery of Cardiff's corner.
- The two man barrier is intact, Silva is till on his post.
- Problem #1: Hart is in a bad spot with the Cardiff player having blocked him and demanding a little of his concentration.
- Problem #2: Campbell has managed to get separation from his marker, Zabaletta.
- Every other City marker is tight with the opposing player.
Cardiff 3-1
Onto Cardiff's second goal from a corner.
City run exactly the same defensive setup for this next corner goal against.
- Two man near post barrier is still being used.
- Silva is still on the back post
- Man-to-man marking is still being used.
Conclusion
The two goals Man City conceded from corners don't appear to be due to some tactical weakness at corners but more to do with individual errors and lapses in concentration. These issues can be iron out, Zabaletta is not a player noted for having any issues at set-pieces.
Pellegrini will surely spend more time focusing on set-pieces in the coming days, and he will reiterate the message that concentration is absolutely vital against teams who's main goal threat will come from set-piece situations.
If I were in charge, I'd consider changing the two man near post barrier to a one man barrier, and put the spare man - Toure - in a central position on the edge of the six yard box. This would provide a little extra cover against those hard flat deliveries that so caught Man City out on Sunday.
Anyhow, no need to panic., City weren't outplayed, they were caught out at set pieces, which is fixable.
If you are feeling down about yesterday's result, listen to this, it's beautiful.