Are the intended targets largely to blame for Inter Miami's attacking set-piece issues?
Designated dead-ball specialist Lewis Morgan touched on some of the reasons why the team is struggling with that facet of play
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Inter Miami has improved in a lot of facets during its recent run of good form, but there is one area the team is still struggling mightily in.
We now have a detailed response as to what might be causing that.
Inter Miami is set to play its 22nd game of the MLS season this Saturday night vs. the visiting Columbus Crew, and one thing the South Florida side will be aiming to do in addition to picking up the three points is score off another set piece at long last. The Herons have found the back of the net just once off a dead-ball situation in all of 2021 — via a free kick back in Week 2 in April — and zero times off a corner kick. The team is the only one in in all of the league to not tally from that latter type of dead-ball situation this year.
Head coach Phil Neville has largely avoided providing specific reasons for why Inter Miami has struggled so much from that facet of play this year, responding to questions about the issues mostly by saying that his group is working hard to improve. Regular set-piece taker Lewis Morgan, however, shed some light when probed on the matter on Thursday.
“Sometimes the fact of the matter is whoever is attacking the ball is not putting the ball into the back of the net,” said Morgan. “I think we are all man enough to say that to each other. It is not about protecting everyone. I think the boys that are attacking the ball in the box probably have also been critical of themselves. Maybe not being aggressive to go and attack the ball.”
Morgan also recognized that sometimes the delivery on balls whipped in has not been perfect, but he also briefly mentioned that the team has looked at statistics to see how many “first contacts” are being made. Regardless, attacking free kicks and corner kicks have been a problem for Inter Miami dating back to the team’s inaugural season in 2020, so much so that new goalkeeper coach Mark Mason was interestingly also given the title of “set piece specialist” when Neville’s technical staff was named this past winter.
Mason’s arrival has not yielded much better results, at least in terms of offensive dead-ball opportunities. The lone goal the Herons have this year from that facet came five months ago when Federico Higuain found brother Gonzalo Higuain on a free kick in a comeback road win against the Philadelphia Union on April 24. In comparison, Crew playmaker Lucas Zelarayan has scored five goals directly off free kicks this season, to say nothing of that team’s other attacking set pieces.
In an attempt to improve Inter Miami in that area, Neville and Mason have recently drawn up more creative set-piece plays to try and give players more space and chances. Alas, it has largely been to no avail.
A deep analysis might reveal that the intended targets in the penalty box are just not threatening enough when attacking aerial balls in the final third, something that may have also been the case when Diego Alonso was Inter Miami head coach last season. What’s more, Neville may have alluded to that as recently as last month when talking about the topic of dead-ball situations.
“I have told, particularly the centerbacks, that they need to start attacking the ball better,” said Neville on Aug. 12. “I want three, four, five goals from Nico, from Ryan (Shawcross), from (Leandro Gonzalez Pirez). I want by the end of the season them to have at least five goals between them.”
The good news for Inter Miami is that its set-piece struggles have not been all that glaring as of late in part because the team is at long last regularly getting goals from more than just Gonzalo Higuain. The likes of Rodolfo Pizarro, Robbie Robinson, Brek Shea, and Kieran Gibbs are just some of the players that have contributed with tallies from the run of play in recent matches.
That said, Inter Miami knows it needs to improve on attacking free kicks and corner kicks in order to give the team another way of scoring. It might take more conviction and improved timing from the intended targets in the penalty area, it might take better delivery from Morgan, or it might take another level of creativity from Neville and Mason. Maybe all of the above.
Whatever the solution is, Inter Miami will continue to search for it in order to finally strengthen this long-standing weakness.
“It is not like we are not creating chances. We have had chances,” said Morgan. “It is just circumstantial that we have not scored yet. It is important if we are not scoring off set pieces that we are doing it in other ways, and luckily at the moment we are doing that.”