Mitigating factors but Marcelo Bielsa keen to resolve Leeds United's set piece issue

United have the worst record in the division for conceding from set pieces, excluding penalties, with seven goals leaked in from either free-kicks or corners.

Two were conceded via that method in the opening day 4-3 loss at Liverpool with Virgil van Dijk heading home a corner and Mo Salah thumping home a shot after a free-kick was not properly cleared.

Scott Dann then headed home from a corner in the 4-1 loss at Crystal Palace in which Eberechi Eze walloped home a direct free-kick and United have since conceded three more goals from either corners or free-kicks in their last two games.

Six days after Kurt Zouma headed home from a corner in the 3-1 loss at Chelsea, West Ham ensured they left Elland Road with a 2-1 triumph as Tomas Soucek and Angelo Ogbonna both scored with headers from a corner and free-kick respectively.

Of the seven goals conceded from set pieces, there was little the Whites wall or 'keeper Illan Meslier could have done about Eze's stunning free-kick against Palace but equally United conceded another headed goal that was not from a set piece when Aleksandar Mitrovic converted a cross in the 4-3 win at home to Fulham.

The issue is one Bielsa is trying to address but United's head coach says his side have come up against some of the most potent set piece threats in the division of late and have also been hampered by being without centre-backs Robin Koch and Diego Llorente with injuries.

"We have conceded four goals from set-pieces (corners) and the circumstances which highlight this problem is that it happened in two consecutive games," said Bielsa.

"It happened against number 21 from West Ham, Ogbonna, number 15 from Chelsea, Zouma, and also with the number four from Liverpool which is van Dijk and the fourth one was number 28 at West Ham, Soucek, who had a significant height advantage over the player.

"The duels that we have lost that have generated the goals, the responsibility is taken up by the best headers that we have in the team.

"It’s normal, natural, that our best header of the ball comes up against the best headerers of the Premier League, it’s normal that they can lose these duels.

"If we compare our efficiency when with our set-pieces in an attacking sense compared to our defensive sense, the data is very similar.

"We’ve managed to score a similar amount of goals to the ones we’ve suffered as a result of this problem.

"That’s to say that the other teams don’t defend much better than us in this sense.

"Afterwards there is another point that is important - we usually have two very good headers of the ball which is our two centre-backs. Koch, Cooper, Llorente, Struijk.

"In the games where we haven’t had Koch or Llorente other players like Ayling or Phillips have had to assume this responsibility even though their aereal game is not their biggest strength.

"There are a lot of questions that are answered without a lot of conviction.

"When they ask me how do you resolve the problems with defensive set-pieces, it’s a lot more linked to the things I have just mentioned than the training that can be done."

Bielsa's words are backed up by the fact that Leeds have so far played six of the division's best seven when it comes to set piece records in terms of Chelsea, West Ham, Aston Villa, Everton, Liverpool and Crystal Palace.

Southampton - who United will host in their third game of the new year - sit top of that pecking order having netted eight from set pieces.

Asked if he felt he could find a solution internally or if he thought he would have to go into the transfer market, Bielsa said: "If you heard what I said previously, the conclusions on which you base your question are not the same.

"My conclusions are that we’ve conceded four goals.

"Of those four goals, three have been scored by three of the Premier League's best headers of the ball.

"The other one, Soucek had a 15 centimeter advantage over who was marking him.

"I think of course we have to evolve and this that you propose the training will resolve it is a truth, but it is a truth at a medium or half-way.

"Finally, the aerial game has three big aspects.

"It’s always an aspect which is one against another and there are two components there which is the height and how good they are aerially.

"In that sense you can lose or win.

"You can be shorter or taller and be a better header than the opponent.

"The other aspect is if there is effectively a dispute with the ball and this has to do with the movement.

"If both players arrive at the place of dispute at same time.

"That’s to say whether they leave at the same time or if one is faster with his movement and it also has to do with experience with how cheeky or how subtle you can be in these moments.

"In this sense a journalist asked me the other day if I thought my team was naive.

"After the game week is over I show our players all the actions in which VAR intervenes.

"A lot of them are linked into what we are talking about.

"Of course our teams suffers a lot of infractions which are blocks, which are sometimes penalised and sometimes not.

"We don’t use this resource because it’s an infraction but of course we have to adapt to these circumstances.

"To respect the rules is not being naive.

"It’s acting how we are indicated to act.

"So all these processes are something we are trying to improve on and find a solution for going forward.

"But this requirement, this question that you are asking me comes from the fact we conceded set-pieces in two games in a row, because we have not conceded an exaggerated amount of goals in this manner.

"So, if you were to ask me if I had to improve one defensive aspect or this defensive aspect, I would try to improve other defensive aspects which generate more difficulties for us than set-pieces, which doesn’t mean we don’t have this problem."

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https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/newcastle-united-handed-double-boost-ahead-leeds-united-clash-covid-outbreak-overcome-3068865

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Thank you Laura Collins