Al-Taawoun is currently ranked second in the Saudi Pro League, after Al-Hilal, who is in first place. Both teams have achieved 13 points from 5 matches. However, the goal difference is 9 in favour of Al-Hilal and 7 in favour of Al-Taawoun.
It looks strange that Al-Taawoun is above big teams like Al-Ittihad, Alhilal and Al-Nasr, whom Altaawoon won 2-0, but their excellent set-pieces have a massive part in this rank.
Al-Taawoun is the team that has scored the most goals from corner kicks in the Saudi Pro League, with a total of 5 goals in just five matches. It may be a surprise that the team in second place for most goals scored from corner kicks in the Saudi Pro League is Al-Nassr, with only one goal with Al-Ittihad, Al Ettifaq, Dhamk and Al Akhdoud.
Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr have the strongest attacking line in the Saudi Pro League, with each team scoring 15 goals. However, each of them has scored only one goal from corner kicks. On the other hand, Al-Taawoun has scored five goals from a total of nine goals, which is a very high percentage of around 55%. This is despite their attack being ranked sixth with only nine goals scored. This indicates their heavy reliance on corner kicks.
In this tactical analysis, we will explain the tactics of Al-Taawoun in attacking corners and how set-piece analysis affects their performance and position in the Saudi Pro League.
Short corners
Al-Taawoun usually use short corners once or more at any match, and they have the flexibility to deal with the opponents defensive scheme. Lets start with the first way they use short corners, which is achieving numerical superiority.
In the first photo, it is clear that they use a short-option player and two players on the edge of the box in the rebound zone to be four in total, with the taker, as shown in black numbers. They attack the box with five players, leaving a player at the back out of the shot. Al Fateh defend with two players who defend in zonal marking, in black circles, five players inside the box who defend in man-marking and three players, highlighted in green numbers; one defends the short-option attacker and two on the rebound zone.
In the second photo, when the taker raises his hand, an attacker runs to the near post to fix the zonal defender, in orange, who should help the short-option defender in case the corner is played shortly to prevent a 2v2 situation.
In the third photo, the 2v1 situation is clear. Hence, the taker passes the ball to the short-option attacker, then moves in green, having ample space to get the second pass to cross the ball from a nearer space while the two attackers on the rebound zon fix the two defenders in red arrows. Still, the short-option attacker chooses to dribble alone, and then the zonal defender and the rebound player near the ball go to face him, as shown in the fourth photo.
After that, in the same match, Al Fateh decided to dispense with a man marker to use him as a second short-option defender, in the first photo in orange, to make the situation a 4v4 situation, so there is an attacker without marking inside the box, in orange, so the defender, in pink shouts out asking the defender number four to mark that free attacker.
In the second photo, he gets back to mark the free attacker, leaving only one defender in the rebound player against two attackers, as shown in the third photo, so Al-Taawoun have no problem because they are flexible having the ideas to do according to the situation. Hence, the taker crosses the ball directly to the second attacker in the rebound zone, in orange in the fourth photo.
