Why Milner's corners are always short - and how it won us the match.

An in depth study by u/Szlafarski

If there's one thing we've known for most of the season, it's that James Milner loves taking corner kicks.

What we have learned from that observation over several months is that quite often those corner kicks fall just before the near post, most of the time never making it into the danger zone (LANAAAAAAAA!!!!!).

We saw Milner take several identical corners tonight of this exact variety, each one losing altitude and velocity before reaching our players.

Now we ask ourselves James, why do your corners always fall short?

The answer: because he's a brilliant crosser of the ball.

From open play, that is.

Milner was already a good crosser back when he was playing at Aston Villa, and got loads of assists pinging in balls from right midfield and even from the left when swapping wings with Ashley Young. We've also seen him bag a few assists for us this season as a result of his excellent crossing ability. 9/10 times his crosses fall in the middle of the box or near the far post - lethal positions for our players to attack the ball.

Okay, cool, but what does this have to do with his corners?

It's simple: he uses the exact same technique for corners as he does for crosses. The main difference, however, is this:

He's always 5-10 yards out from the touch line when making his crosses, especially for his lofted balls. Remember the assist earlier in the season the Benteke? Or for example, the mid-height cross he put in earlier in the match today against Dortmund? Perfect accuracy which unfortunately we failed to capitalize on.

Obviously, the most important example came in the dying embers of the match when Milner picked up Sturridge's pass and crossed the ball up over the box perfectly to the far post for Lovren to get to and head in the winner that drove us all fucking mental.

What became my dad and I screaming at the tele for James to get his shit together on corners became the tool that helped us unlock Dortmund and made for one of the most spectacular matches in the history of Anfield.

James, I'll never judge you and your limp corner kicks ever again. Just keep doing your thing, mate.

TL;DR - Milner hits from the tee spot with his Driver the same way he hits from the fairway with his 3 Wood.

EDIT: APOLOGIES. I'm still going berserk from the win. Forgot Coutinho took the corner for Sakho's goal.

I also don't remember Can being subbed off - trying to bury the anxiety of Lucas giving away the free kick in the final minute?