If there’s one lesson that jumps off the page from this workshop, it’s this: Your approach to long corners must be built around your players’ strengths and clear objectives—not generic, one-size-fits-all structures.
It’s easy, even for experienced coaches, to fall into the trap of copying what’s trendy or what worked for a pro team with world-class personnel. But as demonstrated in this session on long corner tactics, real success on the pitch comes from a measured, pragmatic assessment of what your players can actually execute under pressure, and from setting clear objectives for what you want to achieve from each set piece.
Why This Matters
Long corners (or 23-meter restarts, as our expert pointed out) present a valuable yet often under-leveraged opportunity to turn a restart into a direct scoring chance, a penalty corner, or meaningful circle entry. Yet, too often, teams settle for aimless recycling or speed for the sake of speed, without considering how the structure, roles, and movements actually serve a clear purpose.
One quote from the expert Darren Cheesman hits right at the heart of it:
“There’s no point going to watch the Dutch women play their long corners if you don’t have any players that look or play like the Dutch women. If you try to play like the Belgian men, but you don’t have Arthur Van Dorda, who is able to distribute over 60 meters and eliminate all eleven players, don’t try to play like him.”
It sounds obvious, but it’s a point we all need reminding of. The foundation of effective set plays is built on understanding your team, not someone else’s highlight reel.
How to Use This in Your Day-to-Day
Here’s a simple stepwise approach you can implement this week:
1. Assess Your Current Long Corner Approach:
Review your last few matches and make an honest assessment of what your team is actually trying to achieve on long corners. Is there a plan? Are the roles clear? Which spaces are you aiming to exploit? Are you just playing it safe and predictable?
2. Define Clear Objectives:
As Darren Cheesman emphasized, the objective comes before the routine:
“For me, the objective is a quality circle entry and a good goal scoring chance or a penalty corner win... The objective comes before the routine. If we can’t get quickly into the circle, then we set up some patterns we can rely on.”
That means, before you train a single pattern, identify whether you’re after a direct scoring shot, a penalty corner, a specific player in a 1v1, or simply circle retention.
3. Build Roles Around Strengths:
Once the objectives are clear, align individual roles with your players’ genuine strengths. If you have a standout dribbler, create opportunities for a 1v1 on the right shoulder. If you’re blessed with a dynamite tipper, focus movement patterns to funnel delivery into that space. Build the movements and leads backward from your goal.
4. Train With Realism and Pressure:
Don’t just run dry drills—introduce opposed practices, unit play, and game-realistic constraints to sharpen decision-making and connection. Remember, “training like it is such an important part of our game now. It leads to so many goal scoring opportunities or it doesn’t lead to goal scoring opportunities if you’re poor at it.” (Darren Cheesman)
5. Review and Refine Continuously:
Return to video, gather player feedback, and keep tweaking. The game’s nuanced, but the clarity of your plan—and your adaptability—is what creates measurable improvement.
Why You’ll Want to Watch the Full Session
This session is a goldmine for anyone looking to move their long corner routines from set-piece afterthoughts to genuine goal threats. Darren Cheesman not only deconstructs the tactical what and why but walks through multiple video examples, training methods, and practical frameworks for experimentation and refinement. If you want to see the nuance, hear detailed answers to real coaching questions, and break down the decision-making process in the D, this is the session to study.
Unlock the second half of this post for an in-depth breakdown of the three main takeaways from this masterclass, complete with implementation advice and direct quotes you can take to the pitch.
