Bristol City seek set-piece solution as Nigel Pearson delivers harsh truth to defence

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson says that he is close to implementing a change in tactics when it comes to conceding from set pieces.

City over the course of the Championship campaign have conceded 13 goals from set pieces with only relegation threatened Reading shipping more.

Both of the goals the Robins conceded in the midweek defeat to Barnsley on Tuesday involved a corner-kick.

It has been an unwanted trend that has been the thorn of City’s side, who with their aerial threat, should be better at.

With Barnsley the boiling point of the set-piece frustration, steps have been taken to eradicate the defensive errors.

“Unfortunately we don’t have reliable markers,” Pearson said. “We might have to find a different solution.

“Players are unable to stay with the man that they are designated to, which has been a huge problem for us.

“Unfortunately we may have to look at a different solution which we are looking at the moment.”

Such a change would see players move from man marking which is a tactic where a player is assigned to a particular player to zonal marking, which would see them focus on a particular area of the box instead.

No one will be more frustrated with the amount of set-piece goals than Curtis Fleming and Pearson, who during their playing careers played in defence.

Such has been the frustration with the lack of clean sheets recorded this season, as well as sloppy goals conceded, that Nigel Pearson does not think any of his centre-backs are the most ‘reliable’ in the squad.

Instead that accolade goes to front-man Chris Martin, who signed a new one-year contract this week.

Martin, who is more accustomed to scoring and has delivered nine goals this season, tends to come back to defend corners given his six foot frame.

“I’m trying to find something that our players can deal with. Chris Martin is our most reliable defender. I’m sure the centre-backs won’t be pleased for me to say that but that’s the reality of the situation.

“We’ve had defenders who have been culpable at various stages of the season where they’ve not been able to deal with their man.

“We concede far too many goals from the centre of the penalty box and have been unable to deal with our opponents.”

The returning Robbie Cundy, is one of those defenders who Pearson is hoping his words will help inspire him to better his ability at defending set pieces.

Cundy, who after three years at the club, only made his first start this month, has started in place of Tomas Kalas, who has been absent through injury.

The 24-year-old has only a handful of appearances in the Championship and he was one player that Pearson believes will need to improve as he gets to grips with playing at a higher division.

Pearson said: “The other day, Robbie Cundy lost his man, but he’s a good defender. He’s playing at a level now that he’s not played at before. It’s an illustration that the higher you go the problems become slightly more difficult.

“I’m delighted that Robbie is back and he’s a good defender in many circumstances but of course, the higher you go the probability of your opponent being able to convert chances in the penalty box becomes higher.

“It’s like that in the Championship and it’s certainly like that in the Premier League. You’ll get punished if you make one mistake and it costs you dearly.

“Going back to our own strike force, ours have done exceptionally well to convert the number of chances we have created. Our lack of creativity was a concern for us, we’ve addressed that but unfortunately we’ve shipped far too many.

“Both in the short-term and the long-term we’ll need to address this.”

Any change to how City approach their set-piece problems will be tested when West Bromwich come into town on Saturday. The Baggies have plenty of players who are capable of causing problems in the air and in dead-ball situations.

They have the likes of Semi Ajayi, Daryl Dike and Andy Carroll, who have made careers out of being physically strong and using it to their advantage.

In October, City fell to a 3-0 defeat at The Hawthorn’s and it was a day that Pearson remembers all too well.

“They’ll be a big test for us from set plays,” Pearson added. “They battered us at their place, physically we weren’t able to match them.

“We need to perform better than them at their place, absolutely.

“We can’t give them away needlessly, we were sloppy with that the other night. When you’ve got to defend them with a real commitment.

“Whichever system we adopt against them, you can only be successful if everyone is switched on, concentrated and is physically resilient.”