Wolves Turning the Corner

Article by Robin Attfield

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Wolves’ impressive start to the season continues with two more points from two away fixtures but a sense of frustration continues that the points total should have doubled and that we conspired not to win at the Valley on Tuesday night. Looking at the statistics for possession, corners won and conceded and shots on target, our dominance was apparent. Our need for a goal scorer is well documented and I am not going to join the growing army of those who lambast Clarke as the reason for failure or the 2Ms for failing to pay overpriced rates for players who appear to provide the solution. As Kenny Jackett has said repeatedly, and as was the case last year, goals must come from everywhere.

Instead I want to look at an issue that has been apparent for many years with Wolves teams but receives little attention: -our failure to score from corners and tendency to concede when facing them. Sam Allardyce, football’s most pragmatic and data-conscious manager, has figures that show what a high percentage of goals come from set plays, including corners. His team work relentlessly on this aspect of the game. I am not advocating a big Sam style of football but our statistics this year make for interesting reading. In our seven games we have conceded three goals - all from set pieces, two of which were corners. We have scored three goals from set pieces, two from corners and one from a free kick. We also missed the only penalty we were awarded whilst coneding from the one we gave away. So on one level everything looks about even. Against Charlton, however, we earned around four times as many corners as we conceded yet the outcome was a goal scored and a goal conceded. Against Rotherham, our one league loss we were again dominant in terms of territory and possession. With the exception of the smart training ground move that led to the goal at Fulham and Danny Bath arriving at the right time to power a header goalwards we generally look unlikely to score from corners. Indeed, more than once this season we have been threatened from our poor delivery. The crowd generally gets excited and brings expectation when a corner is awarded. The sense of anti-climax after after each underhit or overhit corner is palpable and growing. What is going wrong? I have no doubt that time is spent on the training ground but, Fulham excepted, seems to have little impact. We have a range of players capable of deadball delivery but none is consistent. I would rarely let Sako take a corner. His delivery can be exceptional with pace and whip beyond any other but none of his team mates seems to know where to be when he does get it right – I suspect an analysis of goals scored from Sako’s corners over the last two years would reveal a low success rate. More importantly, I would want Sako around the edge of the box to attack the half cleared ball. Who can ever forget the screamer he hit from that position at Bramhall Lane last year – a position he only took up as he was too exhausted late in the match to go over and take the corner himself!!!

We are not blessed with many players with physical prowess by today’s footballing standards and need to use speed and flick-ons with the goal attempt coming from the second player rather than float and hope. Craddock and Berra were good exponents of winning the first touch. Incidentally, our problem can be summarised in comparing Berra’s goals from set pieces at Ipswich and for Scotland against his nil return in all his seasons at Wolves and who would bet against scoring when we play Ipswich later this year? In defence, we concede too many proportionately and allow too many attempts at goal. The Rotherham goal was freakish and it seems that a defender may have been blocked off when Charlton scored but luck/ poor refereeing decisions must even themselves out and if you are earning so many more corners than you are conceding surely we should score more or at least look like threatening the goal.

We are playing some wonderful attacking football down the wings, often leading to corners. If we are to stay in the pack looking to escape the Championship not only do we need the striker the club has been searching for but also to convert so many more of our set plays and especially our corners. Scoring has an obvious immediate effect but looking like scoring creates pressure and the conditions in which are more likely to score. Not too many defences will be worrying about how to nullify our threat from corners. In a league as tight as this one, the difference between success and failure could come down to how well we use our set pieces and we will get many more corners in coming weeks and must start to turn them into goal-scoring opportunities. Let’s have both centre backs up for corners as major threats with Dicko looking for pieces and Sako hovering on the edge and either of our midfielders looking like they want and expect to add to their goalscoring from corners and let the delivery be better!

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