[Albion] Surely we must have some decent free kick takers in this squad?

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Ronaldo,Messi,JWP, Trippier, and then I'm struggling with who else who regularly bang free kicks in the net, specialist free kick takers with better than average goals are not that common, keep banging away Dunky, the law of averages suggests one will fly in off a defenders arse eventually.

Pretty sure there's somebody in our squad currently who could do something other than just gormlessly welly it into the wall every time. One of our silky South Americans maybe?

 

[Mr Bridger]

There needs to be a Michael McIntyres ‘The Wheel’ type contestant chair selection, when eventually someone bangs one in and then keeps the title of free kick specialist.

Cut to the chase and get a decent set piece expert as it’s the area we struggle in most.

 

[American Seagle]

Once again, I'm blown away by the fact that, upon being awarded a free kick in a decent attacking position, the players on the pitch (and presumably the coaching staff) are happy to stand back and watch while Lewis Dunk lines it up. Happened on Thursday, happened again today, and has happened on various other occasions over the years. And I genuinely have no idea why.

He once pea-rolled one into the Liverpool net while Alisson was busy sorting out a wall and didn't realise the whistle had gone, and he managed to toe poke one past the West Brom keeper at the Hawthorns, only to be thwarted by a typically abysmal piece of Lee Mason refereeing. But neither of these suggest he's some kind of free-kick maestro. Opponents do not put their hands on their heads despairingly at the very concession of a free kick, fearing a Cristiano Ronaldo special. Or even a James Ward-Prowse or a Kieran Trippier. I just don't understand how we end up concluding that Dunk is the man.

Is he somehow incredible at taking free kicks in training? Is he that much of an ego merchant that nobody dares to say "No thanks, skipper"? I'd be stunned if that was the case, as he certainly doesn't come across as the Big I Am type. So how are we in this position? I know you can take goals conceded back to the Nth degree if you really want to. But the fact is, we had a free kick in a promising location today. Even if you'd given it to somebody who'd curled it up and over the wall and missed the goal by ten feet, it would have been a goal kick, we'd have trotted back into position, and Liverpool wouldn't have been able to counter. Instead, Dunk punts it hopelessly straight into the wall again, it eventually bounces to a Liverpool player, and they break upfield, ultimately resulting in the defensive clusterfuck that created their equaliser. Surely, SURELY you'd back March, Groß, Adingra, Mitoma, Joâo Pedro...in fact any number of players to do better than Dunk did. He did the same towards the end in Marseilles, biffing it into the wall and putting us back under pressure.

It's a total and utter mystery to me that they all stand there and go "Yeah, this one's yours, skip". It's painfully reminiscent of when Roy Hodgson decided his favoured corner taker was Harry Kane.

Love you, Lewis, but please leave the free kicks to somebody else.

I think the case is probably when the kick is central and far enough out, Dunk's powerful knuckleball kick is the best option for a direct goal shot. Being central and at distance reduces the ability to whip in a cross and is too far for the slower curling technique.
That is my read.

 

[Swimboy64]

Once again, I'm blown away by the fact that, upon being awarded a free kick in a decent attacking position, the players on the pitch (and presumably the coaching staff) are happy to stand back and watch while Lewis Dunk lines it up. Happened on Thursday, happened again today, and has happened on various other occasions over the years. And I genuinely have no idea why.

He once pea-rolled one into the Liverpool net while Alisson was busy sorting out a wall and didn't realise the whistle had gone, and he managed to toe poke one past the West Brom keeper at the Hawthorns, only to be thwarted by a typically abysmal piece of Lee Mason refereeing. But neither of these suggest he's some kind of free-kick maestro. Opponents do not put their hands on their heads despairingly at the very concession of a free kick, fearing a Cristiano Ronaldo special. Or even a James Ward-Prowse or a Kieran Trippier. I just don't understand how we end up concluding that Dunk is the man.

Is he somehow incredible at taking free kicks in training? Is he that much of an ego merchant that nobody dares to say "No thanks, skipper"? I'd be stunned if that was the case, as he certainly doesn't come across as the Big I Am type. So how are we in this position? I know you can take goals conceded back to the Nth degree if you really want to. But the fact is, we had a free kick in a promising location today. Even if you'd given it to somebody who'd curled it up and over the wall and missed the goal by ten feet, it would have been a goal kick, we'd have trotted back into position, and Liverpool wouldn't have been able to counter. Instead, Dunk punts it hopelessly straight into the wall again, it eventually bounces to a Liverpool player, and they break upfield, ultimately resulting in the defensive clusterfuck that created their equaliser. Surely, SURELY you'd back March, Groß, Adingra, Mitoma, Joâo Pedro...in fact any number of players to do better than Dunk did. He did the same towards the end in Marseilles, biffing it into the wall and putting us back under pressure.

It's a total and utter mystery to me that they all stand there and go "Yeah, this one's yours, skip". It's painfully reminiscent of when Roy Hodgson decided his favoured corner taker was Harry Kane.

Love you, Lewis, but please leave the free kicks to somebody else.

I thought the same yesterday as he was lining it up.Another one blasted into the wall

 

[Swimboy64]

……or maybe Jason Steele?

Ah…the problem then is that you would have your goal keeper in an attacking position so it could very easily backfire so I would suggest we don’t use Steele

 

[kevo]

No, but I don't understand how fans don't seem to grasp that hours and hours of training go into everything that we do on the pitch.

It's all well and good saying Mitoma or whoever should be taking them - but what makes anyone think that he, or anyone else for that matter, would do a better job than Dunk?

We don't have a Ward-Prouse. RDZ and the coaching team would have given this problem a LOT of thought. Watching our best freekick takers, which includes Dunk, take freekicks in all kinds of scenarios over many, many hours.

Just because it hasn't worked (yet) in the 90 minutes that we get to see - give it time. RDZ may opt for another freekick taker in these scenarios in the future - or perhaps Dunk is genuinely the best we got.

Either way, hope he does score one eventually, and I'll bounce this one

This is how I see it. The current thought among the coaching staff at the moment is that he is the best option to take them. We can all be armchair experts but this would have been discussed thoroughly. It does seem surprising, but I trust RDZ and the coaching team. Maybe he is indeed superb at banging these in during training.

 

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

Once again, I'm blown away by the fact that, upon being awarded a free kick in a decent attacking position, the players on the pitch (and presumably the coaching staff) are happy to stand back and watch while Lewis Dunk lines it up. Happened on Thursday, happened again today, and has happened on various other occasions over the years. And I genuinely have no idea why.

He once pea-rolled one into the Liverpool net while Alisson was busy sorting out a wall and didn't realise the whistle had gone, and he managed to toe poke one past the West Brom keeper at the Hawthorns, only to be thwarted by a typically abysmal piece of Lee Mason refereeing. But neither of these suggest he's some kind of free-kick maestro. Opponents do not put their hands on their heads despairingly at the very concession of a free kick, fearing a Cristiano Ronaldo special. Or even a James Ward-Prowse or a Kieran Trippier. I just don't understand how we end up concluding that Dunk is the man.

Is he somehow incredible at taking free kicks in training? Is he that much of an ego merchant that nobody dares to say "No thanks, skipper"? I'd be stunned if that was the case, as he certainly doesn't come across as the Big I Am type. So how are we in this position? I know you can take goals conceded back to the Nth degree if you really want to. But the fact is, we had a free kick in a promising location today. Even if you'd given it to somebody who'd curled it up and over the wall and missed the goal by ten feet, it would have been a goal kick, we'd have trotted back into position, and Liverpool wouldn't have been able to counter. Instead, Dunk punts it hopelessly straight into the wall again, it eventually bounces to a Liverpool player, and they break upfield, ultimately resulting in the defensive clusterfuck that created their equaliser. Surely, SURELY you'd back March, Groß, Adingra, Mitoma, Joâo Pedro...in fact any number of players to do better than Dunk did. He did the same towards the end in Marseilles, biffing it into the wall and putting us back under pressure.

It's a total and utter mystery to me that they all stand there and go "Yeah, this one's yours, skip". It's painfully reminiscent of when Roy Hodgson decided his favoured corner taker was Harry Kane.

Love you, Lewis, but please leave the free kicks to somebody else.

Oh Jimmy Jimmy, Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy, Jimmy Case.

 

[We're the Stripes]

Guess so, the rest have not much more than a handful of games for us, not sure any of them have even had a go.

Obviously Mac scored a beauty last year, did Trossard ever whack one in? I feel like Bissouma did but maybe in a friendly? Anyone else in the premier league? Don't recall Knockaert doing it.

Bissouma smashed one in up at Birmingham in a pre-season friendly, might've even been his first ever appearance. Never took one again (that I can recall), naturally

 

[Shooting Star]

Because no one bloody else comes even close to scoring from them since Macca left?

 

[Van Cleef]

I'd love to see Igor crack one off (oo-err). Left footed with a deft touch, Brazilian and those thighs. If I was in the wall, I'd be planning to duck.

Definitely. Let's get Igor on a massive run up before he hoofs it as hard as he can straight at the wall. It's the ultimate test of courage. Brace yourself Rodney.

 

[boik]

Pretty sure there's somebody in our squad currently who could do something other than just gormlessly welly it into the wall every time. One of our silky South Americans maybe?

I reckon Julio could be that man, but obviously we might not find out for a while.

 

[Seagull58]

Ronaldo,Messi,JWP, Trippier, and then I'm struggling with who else who regularly bang free kicks in the net, specialist free kick takers with better than average goals are not that common, keep banging away Dunky, the law of averages suggests one will fly in off a defenders arse eventually.

Ronaldo's free kick scoring record is very, very average at 6.2%. Messi's is 9.1%. Beckham's is 9.2%
Over the past 5 season's JWP's conversion rate is 21.7%

 

[chrisg]

Guess still nobody who can take a decent one

 

[peterward]

Guess still nobody who can take a decent one

We should've gone in for JWP.

 

[Sheebo]

Tbf that was his best one yet and hit the head - from his reaction it was going in and also he must be good at training with them. Devils advocate granted…

 

[BevBHA]

Tbf that was his best one yet and hit the head - from his reaction it was going in and also he must be good at training with them. Devils advocate granted…

I find it amazing he still gets annoyed when he hits the wall like it doesn’t happen every single time

 

[Vin]

I find it amazing he still gets annoyed when he hits the wall like it doesn’t happen every single time

He must bang in 9/10 on the training pitch wearing a Ronaldo shirt and run to the corner and do the suii

 

[BevBHA]

He must bang in 9/10 on the training pitch wearing a Ronaldo shirt and run to the corner and do the suii

I wouldn’t mind if he’d scored a decent one in a game but he’s only scored a cheeky one against Liverpool when Allison spent too long sorting his wall out

 

[peterward]

I find it amazing he still gets annoyed when he hits the wall like it doesn’t happen every single time

What did they say about the definition of insanity!

 

[Seagull58]

He must bang in 9/10 on the training pitch wearing a Ronaldo shirt and run to the corner and do the suii

Without a wall in the way