Cowley: Terriers must find answer to set-piece woes
TOWN have conceded cheap goals from corners in all of their last three games, most recently in their 3-1 defeat at Swansea City just moments after finally finding an equaliser, and manager Danny Cowley admits he is ‘not used’ to his sides struggling so much from set pieces.
He and brother Nicky have always prided themselves on their record from dead balls at previous clubs Concord Rangers, Braintree Town and Lincoln City - but only Wigan have conceded more goals from set pieces than Town this season.
Asked whether that was a mental thing on the part of the players, Cowley replied: “Good question.
“There’s no hiding place, we’d love to hide it, but I think if you start conceding goals from set pieces then other teams start to exploit you and then they start to really focus on it.
“We can make structural tweaks but ultimately it comes down to individuals doing their jobs: marking, putting your head in front of a bus, and the commitment to stop the ball going in the back of your goal.
“It’s such a weak goal, I’ll be honest. I’m not used to it, we’ve always done well from set pieces, it’s always been a big part of our success, we’ve always been on the right side of the offensive set pieces and defensive set pieces.
“We thought we had a really good organisational structure until we got here so you’re trying to pressure yourself all the time. You’re looking at things to try to approve it and make small tweaks.
“The Championship is different to the lower leagues: more short corners. They ask for more variation - if you keep the same structure they look to try to exploit that over time.
“We’ve spent literally hours and hours analysing it and we haven’t come to the answer. It’s no good for me to stand here and blame the players. They’re our players, that’s what we’ve got, and we’ve got to find a solution.”
If you start to concede goals from set pieces then other teams start
to exploit you