Newcastle’s first goal in their eventual 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest provided a map in microcosm of how they can salvage their season.
Here was a pre-planned corner move of childish simplicity yet extreme efficacy, an almost guaranteed goal if properly executed for a team who have found guarantees hard to come by of late.
Here was Kieran Trippier, much maligned over the past two months after a dreadful run of defensive errors and lapses of concentration, producing a pinpoint pass despite a red-shirted opponent attempting to run through him.
And here was Bruno Guimaraes, spontaneously morphing from disinterested bystander pondering his navel on the edge of the box to seasoned striker sweeping home with the outside of his boot from four yards.
All in all, this was a move perfectly designed and utilised at the perfect moment, executed by the players Newcastle need to know they can depend upon to succeed.
After months intermittently soundtracked by alarm bells, Newcastle are finally finding some stability, even if it is through chaos. Their only defeat in their past eight games came to Manchester City and their only draw was last weekend’s comeback bonanza against Luton.
What is fuelling this mini renaissance? It certainly isn’t a solid defence – they have conceded 17 goals in their past six league games – but they have scored at least twice in each of their past eight matches in all competitions. Despite their forward line repeatedly being ravaged by injuries, they are finding ways to score.
The most prolific of these methods is set pieces. In Newcastle’s past four matches, they have scored six times from set-pieces: five corners and one free-kick. Much like Arsenal and their dead-ball wizard Nicolas Jover, Newcastle are not too arrogant to believe attacking set pieces should be the reserve of struggling sides in need of a quick fix. They understand they are a struggling side in need of a quick fix.
Eddie Howe’s men have now scored 12 goals in four games. None have come from a striker, only one from a recognised forward in Harvey Barnes.
Yet Fabian Schar managed a corner brace against Aston Villa, one a direct header and the other a well-earned rebound, before scoring from a free-kick against Forest. Sean Longstaff has three goals in his past four games – his first, against Fulham, also from a corner. Even Dan Burn has got on the scoresheet of late.
There are two key drivers behind this attacking set-piece boom – Trippier and “Mad Dog” Jason Tindall. Guimaraes dedicated his first against Forest to the assistant coach, the brains behind the club’s set-piece routines. Newcastle actually produced the exact same move last season.
The Magpies are now scoring freely through a smorgasbord of short corner routines and rebounds which appear to be luck, but are actually painstakingly planned. They don’t all resemble set pieces as you know them, but that’s how they’re fooling oppositions too.
In October 2022, Howe said “the element of surprise is important in our routines”, and that is still the case, as Guimaraes demonstrated at the City Ground. When the Magpies have someone of Burn’s height available, he can act as an attention conductor, allowing those around him to go relatively unnoticed.
And when they can rely on someone of Trippier’s quality, set pieces can become an exact science. The Newcastle captain now has a goal and three assists in his past three games and 10 assists across this season. Only James Ward-Prowse has provided more than his 27 shot-creating actions from set pieces, and this doesn’t take into account short corner routines and rebounds.
Newcastle won’t be able to beat every side in the Premier League through a war of attrition and short corners, but for a team short on form and fitness, it’s a good start. They are now up to seventh in the top flight, a route back into Europe next season.
And they have become the top flight’s premier set-piece exponents in 2024, among stiff competition. What looks like chaos might actually be the closest thing this team does to order.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/Rh4CqZS
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