Corner kick routines: attacking patterns that score

Q: The three routines?

Routine A: Near post Kick to the near post. Back post attacker attacks it aggressively. Try for first-touch finish or a quick second touch. Who's good at it: Forward or striker with aerial ability. Routine B: Back post Kick to the back post. One attacker attacks, one sits waiting for a lay-off. Back post runner might score directly, or lay back for penalty spot finish. Who's good at it: Tall player at back post, clever finisher at penalty spot. Routine C: Short corner Kick short to a midfielder at the corner. They play back into the box for a second attacker. Creates a different angle, often catches defenders off-guard. Who's good at it: Creative midfielder, someone who can play a quick, accurate pass.

Why corners matter

Corners are roughly 3–5% of chances in grassroots football. But they're high-percentage chances — the ball is in the box, defenders are standing, it's a controlled setup. Teams that score from 30% of corners outperform those scoring 10%.

The three routines

Routine A: Near post
Kick to the near post. Back post attacker attacks it aggressively. Try for first-touch finish or a quick second touch.

Who's good at it: Forward or striker with aerial ability.

Routine B: Back post
Kick to the back post. One attacker attacks, one sits waiting for a lay-off. Back post runner might score directly, or lay back for penalty spot finish.

Who's good at it: Tall player at back post, clever finisher at penalty spot.

Routine C: Short corner
Kick short to a midfielder at the corner. They play back into the box for a second attacker. Creates a different angle, often catches defenders off-guard.

Who's good at it: Creative midfielder, someone who can play a quick, accurate pass.

Choosing which routine on the day

Watch the opposition's first couple of defended corners before committing to a routine, where the format allows it — man-marking teams that hold their positions tightly are often more vulnerable to the near-post routine (bodies are static, a fast near-post ball beats a static marker), while zonal or loosely-organised marking sometimes leaves the back post or the short-corner angle more open. Rehearsing three routines in training means you have options rather than being locked into whichever one you practised most recently.

What makes a good corner taker

Consistency of delivery matters more than power. A player who can put the ball in roughly the same spot, at a similar height and pace, every single time is more valuable than one who occasionally strikes a spectacular corner but is unpredictable in between — because your attackers are working off practised movement that depends on knowing where the ball is going. Inswinging deliveries (curling toward goal) are generally easier to attack directly; outswinging deliveries (curling away from goal) suit a routine where an attacker meets the ball moving toward it rather than waiting for it to arrive.

Preparation

In training, do 10 reps of each routine per week. Two players should know each routine deeply (they'll be the primary takers).

Rehearse corner signal (call the routine name before you kick: "NEAR POST!"). This tells your attackers what's coming.

Live execution

Practice makes this automatic. By match day, you've done 40+ reps of each routine. Muscle memory takes over. The execution becomes crisp.

Expected conversion (at grassroots): 1 in 3 corners produces a shot. 1 in 10 corners produces a goal (if the routine is rehearsed). 1 in 20 (if corners are uncoached chaos).

That's the difference: 3% conversion vs. 10% conversion = win vs. loss over a season.

Defending corners (as brief note)

When the opposition takes a corner: 1 player at near post, 1 at back post, rest man-marking attacking players. GK commands the box. If the corner comes in fast and high, the far post player is the last line of defence.

Common mistakes with attacking corners

The most common failure isn't poor delivery — it's poor timing of the run. Attackers who start their run too early arrive at the ball's landing spot before it does and lose momentum standing still waiting for it; attackers who start too late arrive after the ball's already dropped. Practising the run's timing against the actual flight of a real corner (not just the routine's shape) is worth as many reps as the routine itself. The second common mistake is overcrowding — too many bodies in a small area makes it easier for defenders to get a touch on everything, where spreading attackers across near post, back post, and the edge of the box creates problems the defence has to solve in multiple places at once.