Austin MacPhee

[VillaJ100]

1 hour ago, DJBOB said:

To be fair, Luton are already known to be boss at set pieces.

Doughty putting them on a plate for those set pieces.

Konsa and Lenglet lost several times against Morris.

It is what it is.

Though it felt really good to get the winner on that back post cross they were terrorizing us with.

On topic, MacPhee does a get +1 for a nicely worked set piece for Watkins. JJ pins down the front post marker (Barkley) and then McGinn backs into Morris to create the pocket. Leon just has to put it in the right spot.

Maybe Doug taking the free quick fast as well? Or might have been spur of the moment 

[KentVillan]

Think this guy gets too much credit when we score off a set piece and too much blame when we concede. Ultimately he’s probably doing a decent enough job to still be in Unai’s team, but he’s never going to be worth more than a few points a season.

[duke313]

2 hours ago, villan95 said:

I make it 9 goals conceded from set pieces in just the last 11 league games!

How many scored?

[MaVilla]

Emery goes in to McPhee's office and says:

"Austin, all this analysis and our free kick defending is s**t.......can you f****ing fix it please?"

McPhee.....

[villan95]

1 hour ago, duke313 said:

How many scored?

Over that same period I make it 6 although wasn't sure about including the quick free kick v Luton.

Edited March 3 by villan95

[DJBOB]

But I mean for the first goal, what else can MacPhee say to do. The goals are rarely off the first action. Konsa loses twice against Morris in three seconds and how’s Chong not being cleared out while standing in front of Emi?

For all the strengths this team has, there is a Mings sized gap when defending set pieces. 
 
The second goal? Hat’s off to Doughty. Absolute beauty of a ball. 

Edited March 3 by DJBOB

[ThunderPower_14]

Yep, as good as Konsa and Torres have been this season, Mings' command of the air isnt something either of them get close to. You can't help but feel that's probably a clean sheet with Mings in the side. 

[DJBOB]

A pretty good summary of our set piece woes. Part personnel, and the curious Watkins/Moreno action.

 

[osmark86]

I don't know how to solve it, but we are leaking a lot on set pieces right now. So much that it's glaringly obvious and becoming a bit of an issue for us. We can't give goals away this easy from corners.

[omariqy]

We lack physicality in the box. Especially with Kamara and Mings missing. It’s a big factor. 

[HeyAnty]

I dont know.  Diego carlos is a big strong CB.  Doesn’t give you much confidence in defending set pieces either 

[Tom13]

On 03/03/2024 at 05:40, ThunderPower_14 said:

You can't help but feel that's probably a clean sheet with Mings in the side. 

Huge assumption to make.

[DJBOB]

3 hours ago, HeyAnty said:

I dont know.  Diego carlos is a big strong CB.  Doesn’t give you much confidence in defending set pieces either 

I thought so too but I think the actual evidence is to the contrary. Limited in the air and closer to a Konsa type CB than Mings.

[ThunderPower_14]

7 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Huge assumption to make.

Not really, given how they got their goals. Mings offers something in the air that we've missed this year without him. The brilliant seasons of Konsa and Pau have softened the blow a little but but Mings is a colossus back there, especially dealing with crosses.

[Pinebro]

18 hours ago, omariqy said:

We lack physicality in the box. Especially with Kamara and Mings missing. It’s a big factor. 

Kamara is relatively small.

Agree with Mings

[calcifer]

1 hour ago, Pinebro said:

Kamara is relatively small.

Agree with Mings

Yep, in the Manure game he was marking slabhead in the box, everyone could see he wasn't winning that duel!

[Tomaszk]

On 02/03/2024 at 16:25, DJBOB said:

But I mean for the first goal, what else can MacPhee say to do. The goals are rarely off the first action. Konsa loses twice against Morris in three seconds and how’s Chong not being cleared out while standing in front of Emi?

For all the strengths this team has, there is a Mings sized gap when defending set pieces. 
 
The second goal? Hat’s off to Doughty. Absolute beauty of a ball. 

Agree.

We don't have too many strong players in the air at the moment. Needs to be taken into account with all our upcoming signings.

We've tried Kamara and Torres and Lenglet and Konsa as blockers and markers on the main threats of the opposition, and the effort is there, but they're at a physical disadvantage.

Watkins is probably our best and he usually takes up the important front post area and clears 95% of anything reachable.

We're just short in this area.

Emery came into the club not knowing McPhee. And he's still here. So he must be impressed with something. Presumably a sensible understanding that there's work going in but nothing we do is going to mean we Doug Luiz will be leaping above 6' 4" opponents to power headers clear.

The work will continue. Improvement will be sought and demanded across the board.

Emery will take action with the coaches if he thinks it's an issue there. We know this.

[MrBlack]

I dont think the physicality (or lack of) can be blamed for the entirety of our defensive set piece woes. A number of the goals we concede at set pieces are from the second ball after it's been won by the opposition. We seem to switch off or immediately try and vacate the 6 yard box after the first header is won, leaving the opposition acres of space to exploit. 

McPhee should be coming up with something to prevent those types of goals as we've conceded 5 or so like that recently. 

Edited March 5 by MrBlack

[DJBOB]

10 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

I dont think the physicality (or lack of) can be blamed for the entirety of our defensive set piece woes. A number of the goals we concede at set pieces are from the second ball after it's been won by the opposition. We seem to switch off or immediately try and vacate the 6 yard box after the first header is won, leaving the opposition acres of space to exploit. 

McPhee should be coming up with something to prevent those types of goals as we've conceded 5 or so like that recently. 

It's part of it though. Can't be underestimated the loss of Mings. The thread had a good piece on why we're losing the second balls as we have too many people in that frontal zone marking area. Typically, there's 3 players zonally marking that front post area. Watkins, Moreno, and Lenglet. That is not a very physical group defending our front post. I think Emi then cheats a bit closer to the front post as a result. 

Because we then commit 3 players in zonal marking, there's less players at the center of the box, back post, and top of the box to pick up the second ball. We tried leaving players up against Newcastle to have less attackers in the box and that was even worse.

It's not as if we were blowing teams away at the end of last season. Had plenty of 1-0, or 2-1's where we under the kosh but Mings was so good that we didn't have to put 3 players at the front post just to try and win the first ball.

How many blocks was Mings also able to get in when the ball did bounce as well. Lenglet, Konsa, and Diego are all too similar kind of defenders. Great covering and in possession but not outright deniers.

Pau may not be as physical as Mings - but similar to James Chester and JT - he has an uncanny knack of knowing where to be when defending in the box. Post the Liverpool game away - we only gave up more than 1 goal twice (Forest away and Bournemouth away) with Pau in the side. So the concurrent loss of Mings, then Pau, then for a period Diego and Konsa really has hurt our defensive prowess.

[MrBlack]

3 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

It's part of it though. Can't be underestimated the loss of Mings. The thread had a good piece on why we're losing the second balls as we have too many people in that frontal zone marking area. Typically, there's 3 players zonally marking that front post area. Watkins, Moreno, and Lenglet. That is not a very physical group defending our front post. I think Emi then cheats a bit closer to the front post as a result. 

Because we then commit 3 players in zonal marking, there's less players at the center of the box, back post, and top of the box to pick up the second ball. We tried leaving players up against Newcastle to have less attackers in the box and that was even worse.

It's not as if we were blowing teams away at the end of last season. Had plenty of 1-0, or 2-1's where we under the kosh but Mings was so good that we didn't have to put 3 players at the front post just to try and win the first ball.

How many blocks was Mings also able to get in when the ball did bounce as well. Lenglet, Konsa, and Diego are all too similar kind of defenders. Great covering and in possession but not outright deniers.

Pau may not be as physical as Mings - but similar to James Chester and JT - he has an uncanny knack of knowing where to be when defending in the box. Post the Liverpool game away - we only gave up more than 1 goal twice (Forest away and Bournemouth away) with Pau in the side. So the concurrent loss of Mings, then Pau, then for a period Diego and Konsa really has hurt our defensive prowess.

But what I mean is McPhee can't really be blamed for their team having more tall players than us. Maybe he can be blamed for putting Kamara on Maguire, but if he puts Carlos on him then it just leaves Hojlund free of a respectable marker instead.

I'm not sure there's much more we can do with the personnel we have for the first ball.

I feel like there is more he could do for anything after that.

Agree with most of what you're saying though, and yes, Mings is a bit factor in us having to come up with other options rather than just "win the first ball".