Decentric - did you ever use "my" system? Any feedback? Interested to hear from anyone whom took it and ran with it. 

Your fullbacks / sweeper etc aren't going to counter so why not have them on the posts.  It'd be a rare team that has 10 players in the box defending a corner anyway.

@PV4.  Yes.  I'm a convert to zonal marking in the box. (With a tweak or 2.)

Defend first, attack later, IMO.

The system I drew up above ^^^^^^ IMO is still the best. The team I play in now, we have ditched one of the 2 zonal headers on the 6 yard box and use only 1 whom stands solo in the danger zone. I still like the 2 better. 

the stats from scoring at a corner are 1 in 49,
to counter attack from opposition corner and score is1 in 7 , so better to setup for a counter.

And again.  

A player on the the far post the other night and Australia wouldn't have scored their first against the UAE.  Could have easily hacked it away.

Why?  Someone enlighten me.

Unless there's 8 of them in the box there's always enough for a man on each post.

I hear you but the risk of a shit goal, and that 1st one dribbled over the line last night, outweighs any negatives if you ask me.

Some coaches would prefer to have the extra man on an opponent or to outnumber the opponents when the ball comes into the box. No decision will be perfect when it comes to defending in a corner. I have always let my keepers decide whether they would prefer a player on each post or just the front post. Then I tell the rest to mark and follow their man.

First goal in the Tajikistan game could have easily been stopped by a bloke on the far post.

I'm no tactical genius but what are these coaches thinking by not having a bloke front and back post?

Yes a man on the post would've saved it but basic marking and positioning was the problem with that goal

Ange obviously has his reasons but it just doesn't make sense not to have a man on the posts.

2 goals in 2 games is a little concerning.

Socceroos concede v Kuwait from a corner and didn't have a man on the post - which would have saved the goal.

I was doing completely zonal, using something I got out of 442 Performance.

Then others were using just a player on each goal post, and man marked, picked up players individually.

Eventually I've gone for that, then four players marking zones in front of the goal, with others picking up loose payers and one player in advanced position.

I like PV4s model though and will try it next time I coach a 11 v 11 team. There is little instruction from FFA NC on this, except to say don't spend much time on it.

This is what my 11's team did last year. I like to keep the ball so used a lot of short corners and then used the odd "traditional" corner to keep the opposition on their toes.

Just hadn't thought too much about defending them.

That's great! Particularly because it was player-driven.

If I can offer some advice, it is to instruct them that every 3rd or 4th corner, try a traditional kick rather than a short corner. Having set plays, plans, etc are great - but when the opposition team comes to expect things it's good to change it up, and you may just catch them off their guard because they'll be expecting what you've been routinely doing.

I use it with U9's.
Also my team on their own started to take short corners last year. bloody fantastic. of cause the parents of the kids with the boot did not think much of it. I liked it because it came from the players also fits in with my philosophy of keeping the ball.
was proud as punch.

To be honest I haven't thought a great deal about applying it to younger ages.

I'd imagine under12s would be less consistent, and not get as much distance/height from corners as seniors.

I don't have a solid answer for you, sorry mate!

pv4.

I'll have an U12's team this year so first year for them on full field and full 11 a side.

Formation's and things like corners I am going to work on so your positioning at corners has been good info. It all makes sense and follows a similar thought process to mine.

Anything you would change for an U12's team though?

Edited by SoccerDad: 24/12/2014 12:06:19 AM

I only caught the highlights but noticed that in the Arsenal/Liverpool game on the weekend that Keiran Gibbs jumped off the post to pick up a man, and Liverpool scored at the empty post. Would have been a 2-1 victory to Arsenal had they had a man on the post.

Good mod work pv4!

Good move.

Interesting to see your team model.

I incorporated a zonal model, but it was too difficult.

I've moved this to the Performance section from World Cup section, as I figured it isn't exactly a WC-specific topic and thought there may be some that frequent this section and would be interested in contributing that didn't do so when it was placed elsewhere.

Edited by pv4: 25/11/2014 01:53:04 PM

^ very good.


As an ex goalkeeper, I can't understand the trend to stop putting players on the post or why some keepers wouldn't want them to be.

Excuse the MS Paint job but this is what my team does, and it works a treat:



Blue is GK, red are my team.

A man on each post. If you're left footed, you stand on the right post so your main foot is closer to the middle of the goal. And right footer on left post. Or if both one foot, whatever.

A man on the 6 yard box, just inside where the post-men are, on both sides.

A man near the edge of the 6 yard box, on the side of the field the corner is being taken from, to block a low incoming cross and also to shut down a short corner. He becomes the wide option early if we get a break.

A man at the top of the half, for breakaway.

A man at the top of the 18 yard box, waiting for clearance header/kick and prevent the Paul Scholes type volley for the oppositions attacker. If an early break is on, he helps the man at the top of the half.

The remaining 3 man-mark. If the opposition has a pretty good header of the ball (and I play in a division where most players are known pretty well, so easily identifiable) then our best header man-marks him. Otherwise, our best header is one of the two on the 6 yard box.

I am yet to see a better way of defending corners tbh, and I fail to see why all/most professional teams don't line up similarly.

Well there's the solution; cap Neuer.

Yes, I agree with you but the comment I was responding to was about free kicks, not corners.

That's true but irrelevant for corners.

A player on the back post last night could have seen ol' mate peel off to the back and either closed him down or tried to head the ball back out.

It did actually go in top left. A player there may have stopped that from happening.

From my point of view you lose nothing by having a man there so just have a man there.

If you put a player on the post for a free kick, you play everyone onside and let the opposition block the keeper.

There's not marking your back post, and then there's just gifting goals to the opposition.



Clearly falls in the latter.

Edited by Heineken: 19/11/2014 04:27:43 PM

Often wondered why one post marker isn't used in certain free kick situations. Sometimes with certain angles and distances and wall setups plus keeper position you can see that if the free kick taker can get the ball around the wall with a little bit of bend just inside the post the keeper will have no chance of getting to it but a man on the post has a chance. I saw this in the manchester derby a couple of years back I think it was van nistelrooy who scored in the dying seconds from a free the keeper predictably couldn't get near it when it was placed low just inside the post it was the clear weak point in the defensive set up and van nistelroy predictably saw it.