written by – Rangers Report

Out for a corner is a new series of posts that shares the statistical results of corners taken by Rangers.

The following data comes from tracking each of Rangers corners.  There will undoubtably be a margin of error when it pertains to measuring how much time Rangers have the ball in the final third after the corner is taken.

Similar data has been cataloged for the past eight matches.  Any references to averages will be to those matches only.

December 19, 2015:  Rangers’ corners against Falkirk

Short Corners

Time in final third	Shots	Def in area of kick
5.2	0	2
10.1	0	0
3.7	1	1
7.5	0	0
8.3	1	2
19.1	1	0
3.7	0	0

Rangers averaged 8.2 seconds of possession after a short corner.  The average in the past eight games is 11.3, so there was a definite dip there.  A shot was generated on 43% of the short corners.  In the past eight games, Rangers have a shot from 34% of their short corners.  Rangers often went to take the corner quickly which limited how often Falkirk could set up a couple of defenders to cover the short pass.  Of their three shots, Falkirk was only able to set up two defenders on one of those set-pieces.  However, Rangers have also been able to generate shots off of short corners regardless of whether the kick is defended or not.  For example, against Dumbarton a few weeks ago, they generated a shot on 63% of their short corners & each time there were two defenders guarding against the quick corner.

Corners that were crossed into the box

Time in final third	Shots	Def in area of kick
3.9	0	0
2.7	0	0
4.1	0	2
8.8	0	0
12.4	0	0
4.1	0	0
3.5	0	0

It should be noted that a portion of this time is simply the ball traveling in the air & on a couple of occurrences no teammate actually got a touch on the ball.  Rangers only averaged 5.6 seconds of possession off of corners that were crossed into the box.  That is to be expected given that it really is designed for a one-time shot on goal.  Unfortunately, for Rangers, not a single shot came from these seven corners.  So far, in the eight games tracked, Rangers get a shot from corners crossed in to the box 24% of the time.

Ball passed along the ground into the box

Time in final third	Shots	Def in area of kick
10.7	1	1

In the eight games tracked, Rangers have run this play four times.  Each of the corners has led to a shot (plus one goal) & Rangers have averaged 12.2 seconds of possession in the final third.

Short Corners v Crosses into the box

The line that slashes into the bar represents the number of shots generated off of the corners taken.  You will note that in the last game against Hibs, Rangers generated zero shots off of corners.  Also it’s intriguing that Barrie McKay, who takes the vast majority of corners, did not take a single corner in that match against Hibs.

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