Scout Report: Reading Attacking Set Plays

 

Instead of my usual Scout Report I have decided to look at a specific area of Reading’s game. Personally I believe this is their main strength when it comes to attacking play, notably last weekend (2) of their goals scored against Manchester United were from corner kicks. So I thought I would take a look at a few stats and see if they backed up what I thought.

In total Reading have created (118) chances, of which (87) have come from Open Play and (31) coming from Set Plays. Within these chances, (7) have been assists from Open Play and (4) have been assists from Set Plays. If we break it down and have a look at the individuals who are creating the chances.

 

We can see from the pie chart just how influential Shorey is for Reading, they’re not recorded here but all of his assists (4) have come from a Set Play. As well as that he has also created (3) clear cut chances, more than any other Reading player.

So what we can tell so far is how many chances they are creating and which players are creating those chances. Next up is how many shots are coming directly after a Set Play, so far Reading have amassed (19) shots on goal. Now let’s see who are the players that are mostly receiving the ball from these Set Pieces; See Below.

 

The Pie Chart shows us that the three most likely receivers of the ball are Gorkss, Le Fondre and Morrison. Therefore, this is a clear indication of which players need to be marked more tightly to prevent them from making a run onto the ball when the ball has been delivered.

 

 

CORNERS

In total Reading have won (76) corners this Premier League season.

• Jason Roberts winning the most corners with (14)
• Jobi McAnuff winning (10), Pavel Pogrebnyak (9) and Garath McCleary (8)

Corner Takers:

Looking at the table, we can see that the Number 1 corner taker is Shorey taking the vast majority of the corner kicks. Shorey has a 37% Corner Kick Accuracy which is pretty decent. Notably, 73/76 of the corners have been put straight into the Penalty Box; therefore Saints should be more aware of the ball being delivered into the box instead of short. The majority of the balls are in-swinging in between the edge of the 6 yard box and Penalty Spot.

 

FREE KICKS

In total Reading have had (12) shots from a Direct Free Kick.

• Nicky Shorey with (6) shots
• Danny Guthrie (3), Ian Harte (2) and Pavel Pogrebyak (1)

Looking at this video: Nicky Shorey Goal v QPR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbuQngoSs6g  shows us that Shorey likes to get the ball up and over the wall looking for the Top Corner. I would love to find out more about his free kicks but it seems that stats and videos are limited.

Danny Guthrie has also scored from a free kick against Chelsea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVYlORBMX_4 (apologise for the quality, limited video choice). Despite it being an error by Cech; it’s a very good ball in to the box, whipping it around the wall with a lot of pace putting the Goalkeeper in two minds of whether someone else will get a touch on it or whether he should save it.

 

PENALTIES

Adam Le Fondre- 2/2 (Speeds up in the run up when taking a Penalty Kick)

Against Everton: Drilled down the middle

Against Stoke: Placed into the bottom right corner

 

LAST MATCH: Manchester United

Against Manchester United Reading managed to score two goals from corner kicks, so I thought I would take a look at how they managed to do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AehOGAJsNSo

The 2^nd Reading Goal was from a Nicky Shorey in-swinging delivery which was met by Reading forward Adam Le Fondre. As we can see in the pitch below there are (6) Reading Players in the Penalty Box. (3) Of the players start from outside the 6 yard box and make a run into the 6 yard box once the ball has been delivered. The red arrow on the goal line is Jason Roberts, who just stands in front of the Goalkeeper, due to his experience he was constantly looking and talking at the referee saying ‘he wasn’t doing anything wrong’ as a result you could see the Goalkeeper struggling. On the near post the player makes a run out of the 6 yard box, he’s making that run just in case something drops back out to that area of the box. In Yellow we can see Le Fondre make that run from the back post into the centre of the 6 yard box where he managed to steer the ball into the net.

 

The 3^rd Goal was pretty much exactly the same as the 2^nd Goal.  All the players made the same run, except this time Morrison gets his head on the ball as he comes across and meets the perfectly weighted cross from Shorey.

 

 

Dealing with Reading Set Plays

• One of Readings Key attacking threats is from Set Pieces. Therefore, Saints must prevent from giving ‘silly’ free kicks around the box, as Shorey has a very good delivery whether he goes for goal or crosses it.

 

• Watch the runners from corner and free kicks, get tight and restrict their forward momentum when running onto the ball.

 

• Saints best headerers need to match up with Gorkss, Morisson and Le Fondre who are Reading best headerers of the ball.

 

• From Corner Kicks by man marking Reading main threat, Saints could also zonally mark areas in and around the 6 yard area. Therefore, preventing and minimizing Reading aerial threat by taking out areas around the 6 yard box.

 

• Saints have done it in previous games, but they should give themselves an outlet. Keep some players up in attacking positions like Puncheon and Lallana who can exploit Reading on a counter attack. Gazzaniga has excellent distribution so he should be made aware of potential attacks. It may even put Reading in two minds about sending up an extra player for the set play.

 

• Also Adam Lallana will need to get in the referee ear if Roberts is fouling the Saints Goalkeeper.

 

Thanks for having a read!

References: EPL Index (stats)