Defending Corner Kicks: Are Modern Tactics Working?

The tactics related to defending corner kicks have evolved to a point where the attacking team is very unlikely to create a goal directly from a corner. In addition to flooding the penalty area with defenders and deploying zonal marking, many coaches have opted to leave their goalposts undefended. Are these the smartest tactics?

I studied the tactics of how goalposts are defended at corner kicks and found the following:

1. The corner kick is not a particularly dangerous attacking situation. Out of 723 corner kicks examined, only 20 goals resulted (less than 3% efficiency) directly from a corner kick.
2. In a majority of cases (61%), teams left their goalposts undefended.
3. In the instances where a goal was scored, a majority (65%) were placed into a corner of the goal that was left undefended.
4. Out of 723 corner kicks examined, in only one instance was a goal scored when both posts were defended.

Today’s coaches may well be outsmarting themselves by choosing to leave their goalposts undefended.

Background

Back in the day, the tactics of defending corner kicks were pretty simple. Put a defender inside of each post, have every attacker inside the penalty area marked, and position the goalkeeper inside his 6-yard box so that he can control any ball played into that space. And if a free defender is available, station him on the goal line, ten yards from the corner arc to prevent any low cross from reaching the near post. All defenders who are not actively playing the ball are supposed to hold their positions and their marks until the ball is cleared. Once the ball reaches safety outside the penalty area, all defensive players will rush forward to force the attacking players away from the goal in order to maintain an onside position.

Coaching books and manuals have long advocated for teams to defend both posts on corner kicks. Ditchfield and Catlin spelled it out clearly in their books.

At some point in the last 25 years, the approach to defending corner kicks changed. Coaches figured that there was no point to having two defenders standing next to a goalpost, not marking a player or a space. After all, the more attackers who can be canceled out, the less likely that a corner kick will lead to a goal. Every coach would like to see defenders outnumbering the opposing attackers.

Watch a corner kick during any professional soccer match today and the prevailing tactics are to leave the posts undefended, or occasionally, we see a defender on the near post. The goalkeeper is typically shaded towards the back post. It is normal for the defending team to have ten or eleven players in or around the penalty area.

Observations and Outcomes

A total of 723 corner kicks were observed over several months. These corner kicks took place in competitive matches only, across the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, the Dutch Eredivisie, the UEFA Champions League, MLS, and international matches, including the 2018 World Cup finals.

The set-up at corner kicks with respect to goalpost defending was recorded. In some instances, goalposts that were left empty initially were defended once the ball was in the air. In these cases, the number of goalposts that were ultimately defended were recorded.

The outcomes of each corner kick were recorded and broken down into the following categories: a goal was scored, a shot or header missed the target, a short corner was taken, the ball went directly out of play, the attacking team committed a foul, a defender cleared the ball, the goalkeeper intervened with a catch, punch, or save, a post defender blocked an attempt on target.

In the cases where a short corner was taken, no further outcome was recorded, unless a goal was scored. When goalposts are defended and the corner kick is played into the penalty area, those defenders will hold their position until the ball is cleared and all defenders then collectively regroup to establish the potential to catch an attacker in an offside position. When a short corner is taken, the defensive tactics switch immediately and post defenders rush off of the goal line. Thus, goalpost defending becomes a moot point for a short corner.

In the cases where a goal was scored, the position of the ball was noted, and whether the ball crossed the line in the middle of the goal or near an undefended goalpost.

Results and Discussion

The corner kick has long been regarded as a measure of attacking capability. A team who piles up corner kicks is thought to be dominating their opponents. In fact, there have been suggestions that corner kick totals would be a superior tiebreaker to fair play stats, as well as being better than penalty shootouts. 

The results of this study belie the assumption that corner kicks are a potent attacking weapon. Only 20 goals were scored from the 723 corner kicks observed, an efficiency of 2.8%. Furthermore, there were only 27 instances of shots on target (22 goalkeeper saves and 5 shots cleared off the line). Thus, corner kicks generated just 47 attempts that were on target (6.5%). 

Corner kicks generated a lot of attempts that were off target: 75 headers (10.4%) and 33 shots (4.6%) failed to find the goal.

Teams utilized the short corner 100 times (13.8%). The short corner, where the ball is played along the ground to a nearby teammate, and is then oftentimes crossed into the penalty area, is used by teams in situations where their opponents are taller than they are. Barcelona is a good example of a team who use the short corner frequently. The other reason for using a short corner is to try to break up a packed penalty area. Once the ball is in play, defenders will move away from their goal in order to establish an offside line. They are also creating open space in front of goal as a result, and a ball played into that space for a late run by an attacker could prove dangerous. In the corner kicks examined, a goal resulted just once following a short corner.

Given that defending teams routinely pack their penalty areas with ten or eleven players, they always have a numerical advantage over the attacking team, who are not likely to have more than six or seven players in the box. A defensive clearance (excluding goalkeeper interventions) was the most frequent outcome (51%) among the observed corner kicks. Goalkeepers punching or catching a corner kick occurred 51 times (7.1%). Taking it a step further, conceding a corner is probably a smart defensive tactic, given the very low probability of the corner resulting in a scoring chance and the very high probability that a defender or goalkeeper will win the ball.

With such a sizable advantage for the defense in corner kick situations, does it matter whether goalposts are defended? It looks like a lot of coaches would prefer to have free defenders in the penalty area, rather than placing players on the goalposts. In 443 cases (61.3%), neither post was covered, while one post was covered 228 times (31.5%), and both posts were covered just 52 times (7.2%).

In some cases, a defending scenario started out looking like neither post was covered, but players adjust their positions based on the trajectory of the ball. Defenders who recognized early on that they would not be involved in winning the ball, shifted towards defending a free goalpost. Bob Bradley’s LAFC used this tactic quite often to defend one or both posts.

Looking at the 20 goals scored, 12 were scored when neither goalpost was defended, 7 were scored when one post was defended, and 1 was scored when both posts were defended. Of the 19 goals where at least one goalpost was left free, 13 crossed the goal line right at or near an undefended post. In other words, those goals could have easily been prevented if a player had been defending the free post. In five other attempts at goal, a defender who was covering a post blocked a shot on target.

Flooding the penalty area with ten or eleven defenders is supposed to make it harder for the attacking to score a goal. But when an attacker does get free and scores just inside of a goalpost, what was really gained by flooding the box? If attacking players are going to find ways to get open, regardless of the number of defenders marking, it would be better to make the target smaller by defending the goalposts. As crazy as it sounds, my German-born U-16 coach said back in the mid-1970s that he would prefer to defend his goal with three field players than one goalkeeper, primarily because the target would be smaller. (No, we never put this wild idea into practice in a match.)

Coaches who think that it is wasteful to bring a player(s) out of an active defensive position to simply guard a goalpost when so many corner kick attempts are either thwarted by a defending player, or result in a shot attempt that misses the target could improve their team’s set-piece proficiency by protecting their goalposts. Even when two players are stationed at the posts, the defending team will still outnumber the attacking team inside the penalty area 9 v 7 typically. In soccer, goals are hard to come by. Defending both goalposts on corner kicks is a straightforward way to wipe out preventable goals.

Conclusion

Coaches are always looking for that extra tactical edge to gain leverage on their opponents. Overcrowded penalty areas have transformed corner kicks into a push-fest that severely reduces the probability of a goal being scored. As a result, coaches have overwhelmingly opted for increasing congestion in the box and leaving goalposts undefended. But because undefended goalposts are often a significant part of the story on the rare occasion where a goal is scored directly from a corner, it would appear that the intelligent tactical edge would be to go old-school and place defenders back on their posts.