Crystal Palace manager defends their tactics vs Arsenal | OneFootball

Oliver Glasner has explained why Crystal Palace left three players up while defending corners on Saturday, despite Arsenal taking advantage to score their second goal of the game.

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

It’s nothing new to point out that Arsenal have been good on set pieces this season, in particular in regards to scoring from corners.

Teams have tried various tactics to combat this, including packing the box with as many players as possible as Manchester United did, man-marking all of Arsenal’s runners as West Ham did, or sticking Adama Traore on Arsenal’s biggest player as Fulham did.

But none of those stategies worked, with Jurrien Timber and William Saliba scoring against United, Gabriel Magalhaes scoring against West Ham, and Saliba scoring again in the Fulham clash – even though he was the player being targeted.

Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

The latest strategy has been for the defending team to leave a few players around the halfway line, forcing Arsenal to send a few players back to prepare for a potential counter-attack. That’s what Crystal Palace tried last week.

Yet the system clearly came with its drawbacks. Gabriel Jesus scored Arsenal’s second goal on Saturday with a free shot from the edge of the box after a corner, with the three Palace players on the halfway line unable to get back in time to contest the lay-off.

Palace didn’t even manage to prevent direct chances from corners, and they were very lucky that Gabriel Magalhaes’ effort hit the bar a little after the half-hour mark.

Manager Oliver Glasner explained afterwards why he thought the tactic was worth a try anyway.

Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images

“Usually [Arsenal] come with six running into the six-yard box, causing a lot of noise and trouble” Glasner said. “They are blocking, pushing, and then it looks like every single ball comes to the spot where they expect it.

“You can watch the Man United game against Arsenal, they had eight players in the six-yard box to defend, and I think they could have conceded five.

“We wanted that the box is clearer. It was. The second goal, we defended the first ball but we didn’t defend the second ball, the rebound.

“I think it was not an issue of having three players up, it was just that we have to be so sharp in every situation.”

Glasner can argue that his tactics weren’t the problem, but Ruben Amorim and Julen Lopetegui and Marco Silva would probably say the same thing. They’d likely all say they had the right strategy, and it just wasn’t executed quite right.

The result of each of these gimmicky attempts to stop Arsenal’s corner goals has been more Arsenal corner goals.