The New York Red Bulls have been hurt on set pieces this year, in both league play and CONCACAF Champions League and Head Coach Jesse Marsch is well aware.
“We’ve been very good on set pieces in the last two years, defensively and attacking-wise,” he said. “We’ve let too many of those get away.”
Marsch said that nine of the 12 goals New York has surrendered in all 2017 games have come off a set piece or a throw in. Meanwhile, the team has created a lot of set piece chances for themselves, but haven’t converted.
“We need to be more explosive. We need to run harder. We need to be on the move more and we have to put more shots on frame,” Marsch said. “We haven’t tested goalkeepers enough. We’ve had a lot of possession and created a lot of corner kicks … but it comes down to getting more leads, being more clinical around the goal.”
The Red Bulls currently have a minus-4 goal differential through six games, but just three of the goals in their favor have come from player’s shots (Bradley Wright-Phillips has two goals and Daniel Royer has one goal), while two others have come from forced own goals.
“Some of that is quality, but even more so is commitment in the box to do things that can be rewarded,” the head coach said. “Physically, putting more into it, so we don’t rely on just talent and quality to be the main indicator of whether we score goals."
