retired_hope

I often read on the forums that when it comes to corner taking it is a simple case of setting your targetman or tall central defender to Near Post Flick and set the delivery to Near Post.

Having done some recent work on Closing Down, I had noticed an improvement in my teams ability to score from corners, despite the fact that I had not explicitly set up my corners.

This lead me to think that closing down had some affect on how to use players at corners.

The reason I think that we have all managed success with the near post flick on is that all you need is to stick a strong player who is good in the air in this position and he will score a lot of goals for you. This attacking corner position does not require the player to close down the ball.

To be successful in other area’s such as attacking the ball at the near post your players will need to be set to high closing down so that they actually attack the ball.

I'm not going to go into a long winded guide on how to set up all the different combinations, but I will share with you how I am setting up my attacking corners currently.

I set my best aerial DC for the near post flick on. I then set my target man who is set to close down often to attack the ball at the near post. I then stick my fast striker who has good anticipation to stand on the far post ready for any rebounds, this doesn’t require him to close down often. I set the other DC to challenge the keeper, again this doesn’t require closing down. My fullbacks are staying back because they are my fastest defenders and help prevent me from getting hit on the break. The rest of the midfielders lurk outside the area ready to try long shots. I set the corner taker to mixed delivery.

Now if I had two target men for example I would have him to high closing down and for the corner set the him to attack the far post rather than stand on the far post.

I could use the corner delivery to maximise my corners by setting them up to take account of my player with the best attributes, but I like the dynamic approach this gives to my set-pieces.

Remember in swinging corners will maximise the chances players closer to th goal. Out swingers will maximise the chances for players closer to the edge of the 18 yard box.

One more thing, if you find that you do not have a good corner taker in your team then set one of you players to offer the short option, if this player has good crossing ability then you can still create some good opportunities rather than waste the corner.

Hope has stimulated some thoughts on how to start scoring different goal from corners .

Good luck.

zyx345

Only just seen this thread! Good work again, Leroy :thup: A couple of points that might help others:

1. Like free kicks, I don't set corner takers and just let them choose between them.
2. Players offering the short option are always good, so I set both my wingers as the short option incase one of them takes the corner.
3. I recently changed instructions so that only my MCa is outside the area. I used to have both MCs outside area, but this increases the chances of being marked and now my MCa is usually on his own and has a free shot at goal depending on how quickly an opponent can close him down.

As for defending corners, I had a game where the opposition scored a couple from the near post. After that I changed things and now have everyone back except my quick ST and don't concede as many. My instructions for defending corners are pretty straight forward:
GK - default
DCs - both marking tall player
wingers - one on either post
MCa - close down
quick ST - stay forward
everyone else - back

I've found that my target man often now cuts out the ball thanks to making him come back to head the ball away.