Yes ... even the MACKEMS work on corner-kicks ... just as most under-11 school teams do.
But Alan Pardew is different. When it comes to flag-kick failure, Newcastle United have got it cornered.
October 1, 2011, Molineux, was the last time the Magpies scored from a corner-kick.
Yohan Cabaye floated to the near post where Demba Ba nicked in to head home. It set the visitors on their way to a 2-1 victory over Wolves,. It is now two years without another goal from a flag-kick, 78 matches and 375 corners.
Indeed, this issue was put to United manager Alan Pardew almost a year ago.
Alan Pardew: "We’ve changed our whole outlook on set-plays just this week and we’ve had to change it once already this season because we’re just not getting enough success.
"There’s no point in sitting on your hands and going ‘oh well, it’ll come good’ – you have to make changes.
"You can only look at something and try to improve on it, and we’re going to have to try and improve on it."
He left many of us speechless when he explained back in August: "We don't have tall strikers, but perhaps we should start looking at corner kicks."
So obviously he hadn't even started!
Long gone are the days when Joey Barton was the corner specialist, floating the ball into Andy Carroll - and we've had nothing since.
If the French Connection - Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa - are the dead-ball "specialists" these days ... what is going wrong?
Source: Newcastle United Mad
Source: FOOTYMAD
