How Arsenal Defended Corners — and Some Counter-Strategies

The game between Arsenal and Liverpool this week was a real battle in all aspects and the set pieces are not excluded from that battle.

The influence of Nicolas Jover Gunners’ set-pieces coach is very clear. The team only conceded one goal and scored five goals from set-pieces this season so far.

Unlike Arsenal, the Reds don't have one specific coach dedicated to set-pieces, though Klopp stated before that his assistant Peter Krawietz and the analysts are responsible for that. It should be said that they are doing an outstanding job, the team scored five goals and didn’t concede any goal from set pieces.

And that’s why we were excited to see what could happen in this set-pieces battle. In this piece, we are going through Liverpool attacking corners and how they tried to beat Arsenal’s defensive corners tactics and after that, we will discuss from our point of view, what Liverpool could have done better.

Liverpool:

Henderson starts close to the GK, Jota is near the penalty spot,

Virgil and Nunez start from 18 yards box’s line,

and Matip is inside the 18 yards box, 2 meters away from its line, and moving towards the far post.

Arsenal:

1- Zonal, in the first line (red circles) Jesus, White, and Saliba.

In the second line (yellow circle) Gabriel.

2- Man marking (blue circles) Xhaka with Nunez, Ødegaard with Jota, Tomiyasu with Matip, and Partey with Virgil.

3- Saka for the second ball, and Martinelli for the short option.

The main idea for Arsenal is that Jesus is ready to defend the near post, Saliba, White, and Gabriel are responsible for their zones, in addition, White, and Gabriel are responsible for that blue square (as in the figure above).

If the ball is in White’s sight, near to him, and he can deal with it, it’s okay, but if the ball is out of White’s sight or behind him, then Gabriel will be ready to go for it without any hesitation, and all of that comes alongside the roles of the man markers.

In addition to what we have mentioned about Liverpool earlier, we can see here that Diaz is the short option, Thiago and Salah are in the rebound zone for the second ball, and Tsimikas is the one to stay at the back.

Liverpool’s main idea is that Henderson is starting near the GK and then running towards the near post to take the attention of Jesus and White trying to drag them away from that blue square.

Jota is doing the same with his run toward the far post to take Ødegaard away from that area and block him if he wanted to get involved, Nunez is running toward the blue square.

Matip with his position is trying to start away from that area to be able to dismark his defender while he is running towards that blue area, Virgil is running towards the left side of the penalty spot.

Here we can see Henderson and Jota’s movements with Jota picking Ødegaard.

The cross is outswing and getting away from White so Gabriel is going for the ball.

Xhaka with Nunez, Matip could make it to the targeted zone and put Tomiyasu behind him.

in the end, Arsenal could defend this corner.

Another corner and it’s still the same tactics from both teams.

Henderson is running trying to distract White, and Jota is dragging Ødegaard away and blocking him.

This time Matip is trying to use Virgil to escape from Tomiyasu by running off his shoulder.

Liverpool with the three corners they had couldn’t beat Arsenal’s defensive tactics in corners. So it’s time to move to the next section.

First of all, it’s important to mention that this upcoming section is based on a personal opinion and it’s not the only right thing to do against Arsenal's defensive corners. When it comes to designing an attacking or defensive corner, anyone who reads this piece could have his\her own opinion.

Now, how to attack Arsenal’s defensive corners? And what could Liverpool have done better in their attacking corners tactic?

First, let’s have a look at the best players (who started the game) at winning the aerial duels for both teams.

Arsenal:

White – Gabriel – Saliba – Xhaka

Liverpool:

Virgil – Matip – Thiago – Henderson

We can see that The Gunners use their best three players in aerial duels (White - Gabriel – Saliba) to defend the most important zones for them (the zones we discussed earlier) and the fourth player (Xhaka) is the one who’s marking the nearest possible player to attack that zone(here Nunez).

For The Reds, we can see that they use their best two players (Virgil – Matip) by trying to make Matip free and put them both in the ball frame (track).

keeping that in mind, let’s see our first strategy.

Our targeted zone will be that blue zone, and it’s the same zone that Arsenal wants to secure with White, and Gabriel, so it’s important to prevent them from getting involved and that would be done by…

1 – Out swing cross to that area would make it harder for White because the ball would be behind and away from him, and since Robertson is injured and TAA is the only available taker with high quality, this out-swing cross would help in both aspects.

Now after we got White out of the scene, Gabriel is the next obstacle.

2 –Since we agreed that the cross will be an out-swing, there is no need for Henderson’s run towards the near post, alternatively, we are going to use him to block Gabriel, he will start from the same position in front of the GK, and with TAA sign he will move towards Gabriel to block him.

3- Jota’s role to drag and block Ødegaard will still be the same.

4-The runers (Virgil – Matip – Nunez) will make a stack near the 18 yards box’s line (as in the figure above), Nunez is the first, Matip is the second, and Virgil is the last one.

With the sign from TAA, Nunez will run towards the near post to drag Xhaka away and make sure that he is distracting White. Matip will run towards the far post with his marker.

That runs from Nunez and Matip will make it easier for Virgil to distract his marker and run towards our targeted zone.

After TAA crosses the ball Matip can change his direction and go after Virgil to be in the ball frame.

By doing that we are going to have Virgil (the first in the team at winning the aerial duels) in a very important zone, and since his marker is Partey, if Virgil could distract him or win the physical battle, the aerial battle will be easier for Virgil.

Another strategy.

There is another tactic to be used but it’s a riskier one. In the next strategy, the fundamentals will still be the same. We are going to do all the previous, but with some adjustments…

salah will move towards the center, Thiago will join Henderson in front of the GK, and he will make the run toward the near post, therefore we now have Nunez free to fight for the first contact with Virgil and that will increase our chances to win the first contact as a team.

We can switch the roles between Matip and Nunez, and make Nunez the one who runs towards the far post, and Matip challenges for the first contact with Virgil.

consequently, we are going to have the best two at the aerial duels in the team, fighting for the first contact in the very crucial zone.

Finally, it’s important to mention that in this tactic, for defensive purposes there are important roles for Diaz and Thiago. The moment that TAA hits the ball for the cross, they should run towards the rebound zone (as in the figure above) to fight for the second ball and prevent the counterattack.

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