A corner from the right, with the defenders already on it
Soccer · Set piece · 10 of your players and 9 opponents
Nineteen players on one diagram — your ten outfielders attacking the goal at the top and the nine defenders you have to beat to get a head on the ball.
Opens on a soccer pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
What is on the diagram
The taker is on the flag at the right corner. Two runners start on the six-yard line, both a few metres outside the posts rather than under them, so that they attack across the delivery instead of waiting for it. One player screens in front of the keeper, four and a half metres out. The target stands on the penalty mark, eleven metres from goal, and one more waits centrally just outside the penalty area for the clearance that comes back out. A short-corner option is eight metres up the touchline from the taker.
That is seven. The last three are your rest defence, in a triangle around thirty-six metres out. And because your goalkeeper is in the other half of the pitch, he is off screen — this template carries ten outfield players, not eleven.
Facing them is a full zonal set-up: a keeper, a body on each post, three across the front of the six-yard box, a marker on the penalty spot, one on the edge of the area and one sent out to press the taker.
Why draw it against a defence
Because a corner routine drawn on an empty box always works. Put nine defenders on the same picture and the honest questions appear immediately: whose zone does the near-post runner cross, is the target actually free at the moment the ball arrives, and can the delivery clear the first defender at all. The goal is only 7.32 metres wide and there are already three heads standing in front of it.
Making it yours
- Change the delivery, not the runs first. Draw an inswinger to the near post, then an outswinger to the penalty spot, and compare which of your runners gets there unmarked.
- Time the screen. Animate the player in front of the keeper. If he is stationary when the ball is struck he is a foul waiting to be given; if he is moving across, he is a problem.
- Argue about rest defence. Three back is the drawing. Move one forward if you are chasing a game — and then look at how much grass the remaining two have to cover.
Open this corner in the designer, redraw the runs your squad has actually rehearsed, and share it before Saturday.
Also known as
- corner
- set piece
- dead ball
- attacking corner
Shapes to look at next
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Set piece · 17 players
Zonal corner defence: keeper on his line, bodies on both posts, four across the six-yard line, two on the penalty spot, one on the edge of the box and one out to press the taker. All eleven of ours, against six attackers.
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3-5-2
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Three centre backs, wing backs pushed high and wide onto the touchlines, a midfield three inside them and a front two. Overloads the middle and asks the wing backs to cover the whole flank.
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4-2-3-1
Formation · 11 players
Back four, a double pivot screening in front of them, three attacking midfielders and a lone striker. The modern default: solid through the middle with a number ten between the lines.
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4-3-3
Formation · 11 players
Back four, a single pivot with two eights ahead of them, and a front three holding the width. The wingers sit on the touchlines so the full backs have the space to overlap.
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4-4-2
Formation · 11 players
The classic two banks of four with a front pair. Drawn as a mid block defending the goal at the top: back four on the edge of the penalty area, midfield four across the middle third, strikers up on the halfway line.
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5-3-2 low block
Defence · 11 players
A back five dropped onto the edge of the six-yard box with a midfield three in front and two strikers held back for the counter. What you set up when you are protecting a lead.
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Put the Attacking corner (right) on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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