Carl Baker: From the Dressing Room

In my eyes, set-pieces are just as important as team formations and other aspects of the game.

That is why I’m delighted to finally get my chance to contribute from corners and free-kicks.

Whoever I’ve played for I’ve been involved in dead-balls situations but when you move clubs you need to bide your time a little before getting involved.

You don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

Gary Roberts, pictured right, has shown really good set-piece delivery and generally taken them from both sides.

Then a few weeks ago I mentioned to Leam Richardson I wanted to take some in training and we worked on a few different things.

Thankfully he put me on them and it was fantastic to see Christian Burgess get on the end of a delivery at Leyton Orient last weekend.

Being right-footed, I prefer taking left-sided corners so I can get my foot around the ball and whip it in. It feels a lot more comfortable.

I can also generate a bit more pace, whereas the other side the same type of kick would probably go out of play.

As a right-footer on right corners, it is more of a laces ping, which is a straight ball rather than whipping it in, and less dangerous.

Obviously Gary on the right side means he can wrap his left foot round, put a bit of inswing on the ball and make it difficult to defend.

At most clubs I’ve been at they swap the players, mixing it up can confuse the opposition, you don’t want to be too predictable.

Gary and myself have now been the corner partnership during the past few games and hopefully can continue to cause opponents problems.

When I signed this summer, the gaffer told me all about the statistics from the previous season and that the team didn’t score enough from set-pieces.

You see so many fixtures in League Two won at dead-ball situations and when looking at the results on a Saturday evening you know which sides have scored from set-pieces.

Some are better than others and watching the highlights demonstrates more often than not it is the big, strong, physical teams taking advantage of them to win by fine margins.

Quite a lot of work goes into set-plays ahead of a match, although never on a daily basis.

Normally you spend 30 minutes on set-pieces before each match, defending and attacking.

That would be a Monday before a Tuesday game or a Friday before a Saturday match.

Here we try different things, with the players coming up with alternative runs and different angles.

I know Pompey’s record has not been great on set-pieces but it is something we are definitely continuing to work on.

Mind you, the delivery can be perfect every time but if the defender doesn’t want to get on the end of it then nothing will come of it, unfortunately.

Burgess has already chipped in and players like Tom Davies and Matt Clarke are centre-backs who enjoying heading the ball.

So hopefully they can make a bit more of a difference to us in those promising areas.