Tactics with Shaun (Defending set pieces)

Following our away game at Sheffield Wednesday, Shaun Calvert looks at how Ipswich defend free kicks, particularly their tendency to keep a high line and then drop.

Sooooooo, I have half a dozen more different analysis pieces that I want to highlight but I’ve not really had the time to put the clips together or collate the stills in the way that I would like to (so I don’t end up trying to explain in 2,832 words!).

But at Hillsborough on Saturday, some fans sitting around me were concerned at Town’s apparent non-marking of Sheffield Wednesday players at free-kicks. So now seems a good time to pull that particular situation forward to the top of the pile, as there was already something else on the list I wanted to highlight on defensive dead-ball set-up… especially with two clean sheets in two tricky away games in the last few days and Dan highlighting the strange combination of not-conceding and high XG Against.

So this is the defensive free-kick that was causing concern to those around me on Saturday, where the majority of Ipswich players don’t appear to marking anyone & several Sheffield Wednesday players appearing to be standing alone.

We’ve already looked at the defensive set-up for corners and Town also have a similar way of dealing with free-kicks,where the ball is likely to be delivered into the Ipswich box.

• It would seem that the players are given an area to defend, rather than an actual player.

• The defensive line is held very high to begin with, which although it leaves space in behind means that the starting position is not on top of the ‘keeper (allowing him a clear area to come towards a ball that is sent deep).

• The 4 ‘best’ headers of a ball are positioned together, where the most likely ‘dangerous ball’ is likely to be played but higher up than where the ball is expected to be played (the grey area).

• In this instance the four are Clarke, Woolfenden, Ladapo and Burgess who can then drop, in a straight line, back into the ‘dangerous’ area & towards the goal.

• It seems to be the centre backs that lead the drop out of the line, towards the goal.

• The least effective headers (Chaplin and Broadhead in this instance) are closest to the ball, to work on stopping any poor deliveries, low balls across the box or short routines.

• The remaining four players (Burns, Mr Morsy, Luongo and Davis) are positioned either side of the ‘best’ four but again, not necessarily marking anyone.

The other point of note is how soon the line of defenders drops towards the goal, before the free-kick is taken & not waiting, to go with the runners.

• This means that the defenders are in the space before the forwards, to attack the ball & to hold their ground before the opponent gets there.

• I first noticed this exaggerated high line and early dropping in Kieran McKenna’s first match in charge, at home to Wycombe and thought it was just a way of playing against their relentless long ball but it is something that has been employed throughout the last 21mths.

• The line on the picture is the starting position of the defence before the delivery.

This is a similar free-kick, at QPR, with the same set-up. This time, the four ‘best’ headers are Donacien, Woolfenden, Hirst and Burgess with the remaining players in similar roles as previously.

Before the delivery, the same movements have been made back into the ‘danger’ area & occupying the space that the forwards want to attack.

Another defensive free-kick at QPR but this time from a deeper position & again, with a similar set-up, although Hirst is in a position close to the ball.

Here’s the positioning at the moment the same free-kick has been taken.

This is a video compilation of the above mentioned free-kicks to show them as they happened and I would be interested to know if anyone else think that the Ipswich high-line moves back sooner and deeper than those of other teams.

They also appear to do it from deeper free-kicks taken from the oppositions own half & from goal-kicks too but it’s been difficult to find any decent clips of those because of the distance between the ball & defensive line.

If you’ve not noticed it before then have a look out for it the next time you are at a game & let me know what you think.

Video clips of our retreating high line

Finally, I’ve often wondered why more opposition teams don’t come up with something funky or try a different routine to try and upset the exaggerated high line / early dropping of the Ipswich defensive line at free-kicks.

Although we saw very little imagination from teams in League One last year, we have seen both Sunderland and Southampton go for short or fake free-kick routines, as shown here.

Maybe we will see more teams try something different in the coming weeks, as the opposition analysis people work out what we are doing & we will finally concede a goal from a set-piece.

Sunderland and Southampton Routines