Picking up the pieces
By Arvind Suchindran
Assistant coach Carles Cuadrat has worked wonders for Bengaluru FC with set-pieces.
Take for instance the third goal against Johor Darul Ta’zim in the AFC Cup semifinal second leg. Lyngdoh lofted the ball from the left and was greeted by a retreating Juan Gonzalez in the box.
The Malaysian outfit did not see it coming and Gonzalez, free from his marker, nodded it home. It was only one of the scenarios envisioned by assistant coach Carles Cuadrat, whom coach Albert Roca attributed for the success from set-pieces in their last four games.
“We know that one of every three goals around the world is (scored) from a set piece,” Cuadrat said. “So, you have to prevent that, and at the same time you need to take advantage of that.”
But there’s a lot of work that goes behind in making a free-kick look so simple during any match. “Our video guy cuts images (from matches) to show it to the players,” Cuadrat said. “The first step is to decide what you want to do. Then there’s training, where we have at least two practical sessions just for set pieces. As you can see, it was very important in the last game. Two out of three goals were from them.”
Cuadrat highlighted that set-pieces are not used just for goals, but even to mix up the opposition’s formation and create a chance to score. “There was one special moment when we were losing 0-1 (against JDT),” Cuadrat said.
“From the 38th minute to the 79th minute, there were four (chances from) set-pieces. Only the players and we know because it looks like a normal situation. In the first, we worked it in a way that Sunil (Chhetri) can get the shot on goal. It was a corner kick and the goal came from that. But you see, it was not just the corner. There was a set piece strategy before that,” he added, not elaborating further.
Go-to man
While Cuadrat joined the youth team in Barca, Roca went with the senior team and then the friendship grew. They worked together in Galatasaray, Saudi Arabia and El Salvador before joining BFC this July.
The homework for Cuadrat is also to analyse the opponents’ way of handling set-pieces. “Two years ago, when Roca was the head coach of El Salvador, he told me that I’ll be responsible for the set pieces,” Cuadrat said.
“It was working well then, and it’s working well here. He concentrates on thousands and thousands of other tactical situations, while I look after the set-pieces. We analyse the opponents (to decide on a particular strategy). We see their weak points during a set-piece. We have a lot of files on how to attack that kind of a defence. Then, we have a meeting with Albert to decide on the right one.”
Assistant coach Carles Cuadrat has worked wonders for Bengaluru FC with set-pieces.
Take for instance the third goal against Johor Darul Ta’zim in the AFC Cup semifinal second leg. Lyngdoh lofted the ball from the left and was greeted by a retreating Juan Gonzalez in the box.
The Malaysian outfit did not see it coming and Gonzalez, free from his marker, nodded it home. It was only one of the scenarios envisioned by assistant coach Carles Cuadrat, whom coach Albert Roca attributed for the success from set-pieces in their last four games.
“We know that one of every three goals around the world is (scored) from a set piece,” Cuadrat said. “So, you have to prevent that, and at the same time you need to take advantage of that.”
But there’s a lot of work that goes behind in making a free-kick look so simple during any match. “Our video guy cuts images (from matches) to show it to the players,” Cuadrat said. “The first step is to decide what you want to do. Then there’s training, where we have at least two practical sessions just for set pieces. As you can see, it was very important in the last game. Two out of three goals were from them.”
Cuadrat highlighted that set-pieces are not used just for goals, but even to mix up the opposition’s formation and create a chance to score. “There was one special moment when we were losing 0-1 (against JDT),” Cuadrat said.
“From the 38th minute to the 79th minute, there were four (chances from) set-pieces. Only the players and we know because it looks like a normal situation. In the first, we worked it in a way that Sunil (Chhetri) can get the shot on goal. It was a corner kick and the goal came from that. But you see, it was not just the corner. There was a set piece strategy before that,” he added, not elaborating further.
Go-to man
While Cuadrat joined the youth team in Barca, Roca went with the senior team and then the friendship grew. They worked together in Galatasaray, Saudi Arabia and El Salvador before joining BFC this July.
The homework for Cuadrat is also to analyse the opponents’ way of handling set-pieces. “Two years ago, when Roca was the head coach of El Salvador, he told me that I’ll be responsible for the set pieces,” Cuadrat said.
“It was working well then, and it’s working well here. He concentrates on thousands and thousands of other tactical situations, while I look after the set-pieces. We analyse the opponents (to decide on a particular strategy). We see their weak points during a set-piece. We have a lot of files on how to attack that kind of a defence. Then, we have a meeting with Albert to decide on the right one.”
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