Burnley smart set piece goal vs Everton
This is perhaps the most basic set piece routine you could possibly draw up, but it was incredibly effective against a poorly organised Everton team.
The only goal of the game in Burnley’s 1–0 over Everton yesterday came from a corner:
As Ashley Westwood swings in a right-footed corner from the left, it’s easy to spot Burnley’s approach here — one player offering short, two surrounding the goalkeeper, one attacking the near post, and one standing at the far.
Everton, meanwhile, have somewhat perplexingly decided to mark zonally in a single flat line along their 6-yard box, with Delph marooned in an ocean of space near the penalty spot to deal with anything to the edge of the box:
There’s bizarrely little activity or movement by players from either side once the corner has been taken, but it’s James Tarkowski at the far post who plays the key role in this goal.
He pins himself against Morgan Schneiderlin and stands his ground, preventing the Everton midfielder from rushing out to close down Jeff Hendrick, who has been loitering in a slightly deeper position at the far post:
Westwood’s delivery is good and finds his man, who dutifully applies the finish and wins the game for his team:
This routine utilising a single blocker to open up a shot at the back stick is simple as you like but it proved to be decisive in a tight game.
The sad thing for Everton is that Burnley ran this same routine in the first half but the Toffees failed to learn their lesson from it:
Same idea as before here — Tarkowski pushes in toward the back of the 6-yard box and blocks off his marker while Hendrick supports from a slightly deeper position:
Unfortunately for Burnley, Westwood overhits his corner slightly, so all Hendrick can do when he reaches the ball is slam it back across goal, which does draw a necessary save from Jordan Pickford:
Poor set piece defending has been a major criticism of Marco Silva’s coaching across a number of clubs now and with examples like this, it’s easy to see why.
Burnley managed to exploit their opponent’s set-up with some rudimentary blocking and were able to execute the same routine at least twice in the same match without Everton making adjustment.
Even a little bit of inventiveness and time spent on drawing up plays for corners and wide free-kicks can make the world of difference in top level football.
