Wolves v Stoke Preview

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Still not very good at analysing your stats Tom. Can't see anything that is inferior to Stokes that underpin their league position over ours. In fact on % possession and passes we are superior by a decent margin! On other things bar one we are superior! The only thing is the amount of goals they score from set pieces!

But because all the other stats point in the opposite direction it must be that Stoke's eight goals from set play have no real connection with any of the rest of their play!

Is this the Delap factor where Stoke only need to be with in 'throwing' distance for it to be effective and not depend on any other 'quality' footballing elements.

Analyse this anybody/Tom! If this is where their set piece goals come from What is so generally difficult about long throw in's that is such a problem? Is it just in the defenders mind?

I can understand the cut back or cross from behind the defense - defenders may be caught looking in the wrong direction, up field. By the way, at last we are learning how to do it! But not the throw in!

If corners aren't included in this 'eight' then better to give corners away than 'throw in's' - opposite to all established tactics.

Hennessey must be given all the room necessary for him to be the major defender and we must protect those posts but allowing Henners to go for these balls is essential - his reach cover is more than anything a c.h can climb to.

Hello ernesto. I've never understood the difficulty about defending a long throw-in either. Surely it's no different to defending a cross, apart from crosses that are cut back as you say. In fact, the way some crosses are whipped in, a ball from a throw-in would be travelling slower. It's hardly a new tactic, Ian Hutchinson was doing it for Chelsea in the 60's. Still, whatever the problem is, enough teams get caught out by it.

Delaps long throws tend to be very flat and fast making them more like a free kick than a throw in. Compare that to say Wolves old boy Halford's long throws which looped much higher and slower.

I think with the Stoke throw ins other than the angle or trajectory its just the sheer number of them being hurled into the box and its just a numbers game. Given that lower quality British defenders have alwats been trained since they were nippers to kick/head into touch/row Z for safety all Stoke typically had to do against side like Wolves was work the ball down the touch line to try to entice a defender to kick/head it out within throwing range.

Its really annoying when our defenders fall into this trap by giving away cheap throw-ins and its something that McCarthy should be drumming into them to avoid before the Stoke game.

One other thing those stats dont show is "Giving an opposition player 5+ yards of space just outside the penalty box" which Wolves have been guilty of all season.

Good post Stourport.Another aspect of the long throw is the attacking team cannot be offside so a good defensive line does not count for much.Also players are just not brought up to cope with the tactic.Another example of players being coached to death.

Thanks lads,although if someone crosses a low,fast ball it seems more likely to be dealt with than if it's thrown.Amongst all the good points you both make, that's an especially good one about offside, I never thought of that[thick]. By the way Stourport, I'm from Stourport as well. The posh part.

The offside is a good point. I wonder if the stats are recorded for the effect of offsides on all the various types of attack.


Just another comment - Jamie O'Hare was praising the current work done by Jarvis this week. His own improvement should be stirred on by this and I would suggest he trains to get in a better sence of balance when coming up to hit those pre goal 25 yarders. He is not hitting them cleanly enough! And that is down to not setting himself sufficiently before the strike.

I could be wrong, but I don't think many of Stoke's goals have come from throwins, more freekicks and corners. If I could be bothered, I'd look at the average height of the Stoke team compared to the rest of the league. I'd also have a look at the number of set pieces they win compared to the amount they score from



toomb's twitter

As i remember from last season Toomb few enough of Stokes goals came from the long throw, its as if the whole thing is a tactic to unsettle the opposition and that the real danger comes from elsewhere.One thing for sure Pullis gets the most from his players and he seems to have a lot of leaders on his books.You cant really puts stats to leadership.