Midfielder Callum Guy picked up two nominations for December player of the month awards last week, and rightly so with him having notched up five assists as the Blues made their climb into the automatic places.
Much of his good work, and the reason why the Cumbrians have bene able to put teams under pressure, has been the quality of his set pieces, with many members of the squad openly speaking about the fact they know they can gamble because they know he’ll hit the spot.
Speaking about the importance of the quality of delivery, manager Chris Beecj said: “Callum has been very good, and he’s supported with others.
“A good ball in is no good if nobody’s prepared to put their head on it. On the flip side, if players are making the runs and prepared to put their head on it, but the ball’s no good, that’s where you get another mismatch.
“We’ve got a team effort there in that situation, and it’s vital. People condemn set plays, but Liverpool were the highest scoring team in the Champions League when they won it from exactly those types of situations.”
“I remember sitting on an LMA seminar listening to Sean Dyche, because he was talking about not being able to afford the £150m striker,” he added. “He likened it to the fact that if you can get your team to score 20 set plays a season, you’ve bought your striker for nothing.
“It’s amazing how something as simple as that makes sense. There are other ways of scoring goals too, and you’ve seen our team do that also. That’s equally important, because you need goals from everywhere if you’re going to do anything.
“But, yes, set pieces matter, and the better the quality of delivering and getting onto them, the better chance of making them count.”
