Kyle Walker has revealed that Manchester City have worked diligently on set-pieces in recent weeks and it paid off against Tottenham Hotspur.
After City missed several sitters against Spurs during their FA Cup encounter on Friday, it took a late Nathan Ake strike from a corner to hand them a late 1-0 victory.
As per OptaJoe (via Twitter), Manchester City managed to score their first goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after taking 102 shots in their six games at a ground where they seemed to be cursed.
Kyle Walker says working on set-pieces helped Manchester City beat Tottenham
After Ruben Dias went up for a header inside the box, Guglielmo Vicario, who was not commanding enough fell to the floor and let the ball bounce in front of Nathan Ake, as he scored a straightforward tap-in.
However, during and after the contest, the decision to hand City a goal divided opinion, with some feeling Dias fouled Vicario.
Kyle Walker told the club (via their official website) that Manchester City have been working on becoming a bigger threat from set-pieces as their focus on this area bore fruit against Tottenham.
“We’ve worked on set-pieces this week and we’ve been working hard in Abu Dhabi and in Manchester. It’s something we worked on and thought it was an area where we could exploit”, he said.
“It’s paid off – full credit to the set-piece coach who works hard and spends hours and hours watching videos.”
“We just have to execute the plan.
“We’ve got a job, if we have to win games like that, we don’t mind, as long as we come away with the victory.”
“That’s the most important thing for the club, the players and the fans.”
The revelation from Kyle Walker proves how focused this club is as a whole to constantly improve
In our view, the fact that Manchester City have paid special attention to upping their levels from set-pieces, which paid off against Tottenham proves how not just players like Kyle Walker but the club as a whole are driven to succeed at all times.
For a team as technically brilliant and dominant in possession, after having won the treble as well, many would assume that they would not focus on this side of the game.
But it comes as no surprise that being the winning machine City is as an institution, their goal is to strive for excellence at all times and as a result, they seemed to have fine-tuned their approach from set-pieces.
Ultimately, such attention to detail might benefit the Sky Blues to become a goal threat even aside from open play.
