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Well, that worked out well, didn’t it? Some of us were after all a bit jittery because (a) it’s Man U, and (b) Amorim’s undefeated since taking the wheel. In years past, this would have been just the kind of fixture that had all the markings of being a banana-peel: old rivals, down on their luck, us with chance to climb the table, etc. Instead, the scoreline flattered those erstwhile rivals while also suggesting we are still gathering confidence and momentum. It really could have (and perhaps should have) been 4-0 or 5-0. Let’s not get greedy, though.
Of course, we had to hope that Liverpool would drop points at St. James’s Park, and it’s possible that we’d learned that Newcastle had indeed nicked a draw at the last while we were still battling Man U. Whether that knowledge had anything to do with our own result is anyone’s guess.
What’s far more certain is that Nicolas Jover is a certified genius—as if the jury were still out on that issue. We’ve now scored 22 goals from corners, far and away the most of any side in the Prem. That’s not all, either. Looking only at this match, we could have and should have scored at least one other, but Partey fluffed his early chance (we had a few others from open play, of course).
It used to be that scoring from corners was the last-gasp of smaller sides desperate to find a scoring chance even if corner kicks have always been a roll of some very loaded dice. One player is kicking the ball into a mix of as many as 18 players, none of whom really know where the ball is going or how to get to it, much less what to do should they actually meet the ball. This is where Nicolas Jover’s genius comes in. He’s somehow found ways to discombobulate defenders while positioning our players to score. Some of that is down to Gabriel Magalhães’s uncanny aerial ability, but he wasn’t even in the squad against Man U. Some of that genius is down to Saka’s delivery, but sending in a corner isn’t exactly rocket science. One essentially sends the ball in and aims for somewhere just outside the six-yard box, closes one’s eyes, and hopes for the best.
I don’t intend to demean Jover’s influence. Quite the contrary. He’s taken what is essentially a Hail Mary approach to scoring and elevated it to an actual strategy. For decades, attacking players would position themselves somewhere in the 18, wait for the kick, and crash forward, hoping that someone would somehow make contact with the ball. It’s always only ever been a crap-shoot. A shot in the dark. We now have opponents putting in extra practice to prepare for our corners, but it’s hard to see them defending against this aspect of our attack as can be done with other aspects of our attack.
In Saliba and Magalhães, we not only have two of the better defending CBs in the Prem, we also have two of the best aerial threats in the Prem. Magalhães in particular has always excelled in the air. Most players simply aim to win headers without regard to where the ball will go next. Just head it. Magalhães has almost always seemed to direct his headers, even under pressure, to a teammate. That he can also win headers in the congestion of the scrum during a corner kick should come as no surprise.
Virgil Van Djik is the CB with the most goals scored with 20 from 21,612 minutes played. However, Magalhães has now scored 17 goals from just 12,267 minutes played. By the time Magalhães has played 21,000 minutes, he may have scored upwards of 30 goals. Thank the Brazilian for his aerial prowess, but thank Jover just as much for the magic he’s worked. Magalhães after all didn’t even make the bench against Man U, and we still scored twice from corners.
I know that this just one match, but we took 13 corner kicks. We scored from two (and it should have been three, maybe even four). Can you imagine what scorelines would look like if we were scoring once from every seven shots from open play? That would be B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
Lest we let our imaginations run rampant, let’s remind ourselves that we still trail Liverpool by seven, Chelsea are now ahead of us on goal-difference, and City are just two points behind. Yes, it feels good to batter a rival such as Man U, but there are no extra points awarded for the feel-good factor.
We still have work to do and a long road to hoe. Thankfully, this squad and this manager and this set-piece specialist seem to understand that.