Yverdon’s Art of the Corner: Simple tactics, grand success – set-piece analysis

Yverdon team occupies the ninth place in the Swiss Super League after 25 matches with 30 points, having won 8, drawn six, and lost 11 matches. They scored 32 goals, ranking ninth in terms of goal scoring in the league, and conceded 50 goals, ranking tenth in terms of best defensive lines in the Swiss Super League.

Despite the narrow point difference between them and the top positions, being only 7 points away from the third-placed team, FC St. Gallen, its noteworthy that, as mentioned earlier, the teams offensive and defensive aspects are not in the best form. Surprisingly, however, the team occupies the first position as the team that scored the most goals from corner kicks in the Swiss Super League, with eight goals.

The strange thing is that Yverdon dont do anything extraordinary in their routines during offensive corner kicks. Instead, they employ extremely simple ideas. However, despite their simplicity, they are very effective and perplex the opponent. The routine is characterised by its simplicity and effectiveness at the same time, which makes it difficult and represents the pinnacle of success in set pieces.

In this tactical analysis, we will discuss the various tactics employed by Yverdon in executing offensive corner kicks and how they execute simple yet effective ideas with repetition, leading to confusion for the opposing team. We will also elucidate their adaptation to their opponents reactions and their ability to find alternative solutions smoothly and effectively.

Short corners

Teams usually defend short corners with only one defender. This may cause a 2-v-1 situation for the attacking team, having the taker and the short-option attacker against the short-option defender, as we know. For that reason, defending teams began to ask the defender who stands initially on the edge of the six-yard to defend flicks to go and help his mate to be in a 2-v-2 situation, but what will happen if the attacking short option stands very close to the taker, as a second taker? The distance that should be cut by this defender will become too long, so he wont be useful. Lets see how!

In the photo below, the short-option attacker is the second taker, in red, while the yellow one is the short-option defender, and the blue one is the defender who will go to help.

Yverdon have also another trick that makes it more difficult for the blue defender, below. The taker passes the ball to his mate and then does an overlap run behind him, as shown in the yellow arrow. This leads to a longer path for the blue defender; as you can see, path number 2 is longer than that of normal number 1. You may see that overlap often in short corners, and now you know why.

As shown below, the attackers ar