Corners W Bromwich

So how do West Brom do it, accuracy and directness aside? Below are the two corners scored
against Arsenal. The Gunners’ first error was to mark in what appears to be a zonal fashion. In the
first image, you can see a player standing on Petr Cech, and two more directly in front of the ‘keeper,
being marked.

Rondon and Gareth McAuley then run away from goal as the in-swinging corner is launched towards
the mouth of the Arsenal goal. Unmarked, Craig Dawson loiters on the edge of area and begins a run
that curves slightly away from the near post.

Three West Brom players are now in the six yard area behind the front post, not including the late-
running Dawson, peeling slightly away from the near post to occupy the two Arsenal markers and the
Arsenal defender helping Cech. Rondon, who has ended up almost on the edge of the box away from
the near post and McAuley, who jumps into a gaggle of Arsenal players who have been drawn
towards the ball, have drawn the defence out towards the flight of the ball. This creates a corridor into
which Dawson, who has still not been picked up, can run. An Arsenal player attempts to challenge
him, but Dawson’s pace onto the ball means he has the jump, literally, on the near post defender.
Goal West Brom.

The second corner is almost a replay. There is a defender who has eyes on Dawson, but he’s not
marking him so much as waiting to track a potential run.

Again, the near post West Brom players run towards the in-swinging corner and four Arsenal
defenders start to go with them. I’ve not added arrows this time because the movement is obvious
and so like before.
Dawson rises and scores. There are four clustered Arsenal defenders who’ve followed the near post
players, one of whom is the defender who was supposed to be tracking Dawson but got sucked
towards the ball, and three more who seem caught in no-man’s land. Cech is essentially alone,
surrounded by white and blue shirts – Dawson’s movement has caught the defence on the hop, and
it’s been dragged away from the danger zone by the in-swinging corner and the near post movement.
While Arsenal’s lack of adaptation to the first goal conceded is poor, West Brom’s pace and
coordinated movement is too much for the Gunners.

This corner goal against Hull shows a similar pattern of movement.

Three clustered West Brom players head in different directions: one goes on a curving run, peeling
away from the penalty spot; one runs directly towards the near post; and one peels away from the six-
yard box, but then stops. Rondon has also run away from the near post to the edge of the box, as he
did in the examples above.

Dawson (25) has not stopped on the edge of the six-yard box. Hull are doing a better job of man-
marking, but Dawson’s space distracts the cluster of Hull players towards the near post. McAuley, the
scorer (underlined in blue), can only be challenged from behind because the other markers are
watching the dipping in-swinger and Dawson, and he gets the jump on over his marker and guides a
header into the goal.
Three goals, all from in-swinging corners, all showing orchestrated movement away from the front
post and one or a series of timed, patterned runs from deep. This is a recurrent style in West Brom’s
corners, too. Yes, they have big players who are good in the air, but as the above images show, Pulis
or his coaching team have created patterns that maximise the chances afforded by set-plays. The two
near-post decoy runners drag markers out of position and the other runners tie up markers, but it’s
the in-swinging ball towards the near post/six-yard area, usually targeting a deep runner, that causes
the damage. West Brom show movement, thought, and pattern in their set-plays; it’s little wonder they
work.