Boss Roy Keane has explained the thinking behind Town bringing all their players back to defend at corners. Since Keane took over as manager, the Blues rarely leave anyone up field when they are defending opposition corners.
The Town manager says that people often think that leaving a player or two up field can turn defence into attack, but according to Keane the stats show otherwise: "People think that if you leave one or two up you’re going to be a threat. You won’t be, so the priority is really to defend the corner.
"I can give you every team’s goalscoring record in terms of scoring from defending a corner.
"You’d think Chelsea would be pretty decent at it. I think Chelsea have scored one from defending 900 corners or something like that and they’ve got real pace in their team and real power.”
The Blues boss says that clearing the threat should always be the main concern: "The priority when you concede a corner is to defend the corner, don’t think that you can score the other end, that’s not the danger.
"You want players back defending, whether that’s on the edge of the box or wherever, that’s your priority.
"And sometimes it’s easier to break when you’ve got more people back as you’ve got space. If your players are in a standing position, they’re easier to mark.”