Investigating Motherwell's corner kick dominance
Motherwell have had a positive start to this season, sitting in fourth place after six Premiership fixtures. Corner kicks are at the heart of their success so far. Three of their 12 goals have come from attacking corners – Declan Gallagher headed home against Hearts, Peter Hartley did the same against Hamilton, and Liam Donnelly scored against Celtic after a corner led to a knock-down from Gallagher that found him in the penalty box.
I’m no numbers guy – I’ll generally leave that to the good folk at Modern Fitba and people like Owen Brown, who do brilliant work sourcing and interpreting data – but the stats I do have access to make for pretty interesting reading. So far this term only one team – Rangers with 8.7 – wins more corners per 90 minutes than Motherwell’s seven. And no team turns a higher percentage of their corners into shots than Motherwell’s 50%.
The idea for this post came from a conversation with Matt Rhein, who asked me if I’d noticed anything special about Motherwell’s set pieces during their win over Hibs, which I analysed for Modern Fitba. On the back of that I did some research and found a lot to like about their corner kicks. Not only do they have some excellent individuals for these particular situations, but they use a variety of effective routines.
Key individuals: Polworth and Gallagher
Firstly, they have good delivery from Liam Polworth. Since joining from Inverness on a free in the summer, Polworth has helped replace the creative deficit caused by David Turnbull’s injury with his defence-splitting through balls. He also takes a lot of Motherwell’s corner kicks, consistently beating the first man and finding his target.
(Note: Motherwell almost never go short from corners. From memory I think they’ve done so once in six league games.)
Secondly, they have a lot of height in their team and in Gallagher possess one of the most aerially dominant players in the league. Only Christophe Berra wins a higher percentage of his aerial duels than Gallagher’s 67.2%. It’s fitting then, that the first corner kick routine to really grab my attention saw Gallagher and Berra coming together in a clash of aerial titans.
Identifying and exploiting opposition strategy
Hearts have a couple of predictable tendencies when defending corners. One is that they have everyone back to defend them. Another is that they like to place Berra – the league’s most dominant aerial force – at the heart of their penalty box. Berra doesn’t pick up a man, but stands in space on the central edge of the six-yard box. Here he is doing this against Ross County earlier in the campaign.
The theory behind this is sound enough – Berra can simply use his exceptional aerial prowess to head away any cross that falls within or near his zone, which a lot of crosses tend to do. However, the fact he is zonal also leaves him open to being manipulated by the opposition. Motherwell clearly did their homework, because that’s exactly what they did at Tynecastle on 14 September.
Below, Motherwell winger James Scott’s starting position is around the Hearts goalkeeper. He is marked by Steven MacLean. But just before the corner is taken he can be seen darting away from MacLean. Where does he end up?
Pause for effect…
In front of Berra.
So, as the in-swinging cross from Polworth loops into the box, Berra is unable to properly attack the ball because Scott is blocking him from doing so. Berra actually ends up sandwiched between Scott and Gallagher, who scores.
Hearts employ a hybrid of zonal and man-marking defending corners, so in the above it’s also worth noting the run made by Jake Carroll. By running to the near post, he draws his marker with him and reduces the number of Hearts players near the ball when it arrives in the centre of the box.
Motherwell continued to employ this routine later in the match. Below, from a Polworth in-swinger on the left, Scott can be seen making his move to stand behind Berra and prevent him from backpedalling towards the ball.
The cross is aimed towards the far post where Motherwell have three runners looking to attack the ball. Berra, circled, is nowhere near it as Scott has screened him. The cross loops over him towards Motherwell’s trio of targets. By screening Berra in this way, Motherwell either disrupted or completely removed the chance of the league’s best aerial defender being able to head the ball away.
Perhaps what is best about this routine is that Motherwell identified one aspect of the opposition’s strategy for defending corners and planned not only to neutralise it as a strength, but turn it into a weakness.
Creating better shooting opportunities
Heading in from corners, even for Motherwell, is hard. Even with excellent delivery, well-timed runs and aerial beasts like Gallagher, the fact is they’re producing headers in condensed areas, often with the target marked by an opponent. There isn’t a lot of control in the situation, there’s a lot of bodies in the way, and often direct pressure on the shooting player.
However, Motherwell have regularly attempted to work better shots from corners.
Below, against Ross County, they set up with Devante Cole on the goal line and five potential targets standing near the back post. Carroll is set to take a left-footed out-swinger.
Just as the kick is about to be taken, Cole leaves the goal line and drags his marker with him, creating space inside the front post. Also, one of the back-post targets – Scott – peels away from his marker towards the penalty spot.
Scott’s marker is focused on the ball and not his man, so Scott is able to get free. He is helped by his teammates at the back post, who all stand still and block their markers from getting out to attack the ball or close down Scott. Unfortunately, the cross in from Carroll isn’t particularly good and one of County’s two zonal markers near the front post is able to head the ball clear.
This routine may not have led to a goal, or even a shot, but Motherwell still worked a completely free man in the box for a potential shot under less pressure than if he was being closed down or man-marked and with more of the goal to aim at thanks to Cole dragging his marker away from the goal line.
(Note: this also highlights an apparent issue with hybrid marking when defending corners. The opposition can move a man-marker – as Cole does here – into an area already being zonally covered by another man. At the time when the above cross goes in County essentially have two players defending the same area, which seems wasteful.)
Motherwell did a better job of this against Hibs. Below Carroll sets up for another of his low, left-footed out-swingers. Striker Chris Long, circled, is among three players that appear set to attack the back post area. Donnelly is about to make a decoy run away from the box to drag his marker with him, while Polworth is about to run forward and block his marker from getting out to clear the cross.
As Polworth and Donnelly clear space in the penalty box, Long peels away from his marker and makes a quick run into the space opening up.
Carroll’s cross in is along the ground and finds Long, who is able to shoot with his left foot rather than attempting a header or volley or something else where control of the ball could be lost. Ultimately, the shot just misses and Hibs breathe a sigh of relief.
This corner routine also shows a few things that can be used to exploit man-marking from a corner.
Foreknowledge – Long knows what he’s doing before his marker does, which buys him vital time.
Changes of direction – Long shaped up to attack the back post before turning and running in the opposite direction. This threw off his marker.
Movements to create space – Donnelly/Polworth drew their markers away from the target area, giving Long a clearer path to the ball and more space to get a shot off.
Different ways to isolate Gallagher
A lot of Motherwell’s corners are based on isolating Gallagher, their biggest threat. They employ a number of different techniques to do this.
Here’s one against Gallagher’s old club Livingston. Carroll takes an in-swinger from the right and two runners move towards the front post. Two other players, circled, stand still and effectively block their markers from attacking the ball. One also indirectly blocks the opposition goalkeeper. This leaves Gallagher 1v1 at the back post with his marker Alan Lithgow.
Livingston know Gallagher well and Lithgow is ranked 11th in the league for percentage of aerial duels won, so Motherwell tried something a little different to try and get their main man separated.
Below they set up for a Carroll in-swinger with three players, including Gallagher, huddled on top of the goalkeeper. All are man-marked. Polworth stands at the back post, again man-marked. It seems fairly obvious where this corner is going.
But just before the corner is taken. Gallagher peels away on the blind side of his marker towards the back post. It’s difficult for Livi to switch opponents when they are all so close together and the ball is going to be in their box in the next second, so they stay with their men. However, Lithgow can’t track both the ball in front of him and Gallagher behind him. He throws out his right arm to try and maintain contact with Gallagher and get a literal grip on where his man is, but he can’t feel him and briefly loses his man.
Lithgow tries his best but Gallagher gets a header at goal that is cleared away for another corner. Not only did Motherwell work a shot here, but they also worked a free man in the box. As Gallagher moved backwards he backed into Nicky Devlin, who was marking Polworth. Simultaneously Polworth moved away from his blocked marker to become completely free. Had the ball fallen to him he was in a superb position – no marker, little pressure nearby, close to goal in a central location – to shoot.
Focusing on the back post: how and why
Motherwell also exploit the man-marking of other teams to get Gallagher (and centre-back partner Hartley) into 1v1 or 2v2 situations at the back post. Polworth’s crosses are often looping and go high in the air, which makes it difficult for opposition goalkeepers to come out and punch. To add to this they frequently have someone blocking the goalkeeper’s path.
Below, against Hibs, two players make runs towards the front post. They also have one player standing in front of the opposition goalie, while Scott combines his run with screening his marker. Polworth plays his usual looping in-swinger over to the back post area for Gallagher and Hartley. Gallagher, at 6ft 5in, is a favourite over most markers 1v1, and here he gets a header that almost leads to a goal.
In the next picture a similar situation unfolds. Hamilton man-mark everywhere apart from Darian MacKinnon guarding the front post. Motherwell have two players attacking the front post and two around the goalkeeper, ensuring the back post are is relatively clear. Polworth plays an in-swinger towards the back post, where Gallagher and Hartley are waiting to connect. Hartley gets on the end of this one, hitting the crossbar.
By having their primary aerial threats in the back post area, Motherwell give them a better view of the goal. If Gallagher was targeted at the front post he would have a lot less of the goal to aim at. If he were to hit the centre he’d have more of the goal to aim at, but at the back post he can attack the cross in while also maintaining a full view of the goal. Additionally, if he can’t get a header on target he has the option to head back across goal towards four/five teammates.
Conclusion
This has been a long post, but in truth it could have been longer. Motherwell are dominating from corners thanks to quality deliveries, aerial dominance, and well-worked routines. There are some routines I left out, and of course I haven’t even looked into what they are doing from free kicks. Maybe I will dig into that in another post…
Anyway, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed and got some value out of it. If you did, I’d love for you to share the article and help get people talking about The Second Ball.
All the best for the rest of the week,
Blair