England have failed to score in an astonishing 64 tournament attempts from corners
The Three Lions have a terrible record when it comes to picking out a runner from an inswinger on the big stages
NOBODY is asking them to bend it like Becks.
That is beyond mere mortals. But it would be handy if one of England’s players could put it on the spot every once in a while.
Place the ball in the quadrant, pick out a runner from a well-rehearsed training-ground routine and let the inswinger do the rest.
Take the keeper out of the first phase with a near post flick-on and set Gary Cahill or Chris Smalling free to power home a header. Simple.
That corner routine, one of the oldest tricks in the books, still works week in, week out in the Premier League.
It will work out here, too.
Nobody will batter Roy Hodgson for going back to basics, or accuse England’s head coach of being agricultural in his approach.
Set-pieces win matches — 20 per cent of goals are scored from them — and that, after all, is why we are all out here.
Since Euro 2012, eight England players — some vastly-experienced internationals at that — have failed to hit the sweet spot in tournament conditions.
Steven Gerrard (21), Wayne Rooney (17), Leighton Baines (seven), Harry Kane (six), Ross Barkley (five), Jordan Henderson (three), Ryan Bertrand (three) and Ashley Young (two) are the guilty men.
That is 64 corners in tournament football and England have yet to score from one of them.
Manchester United defender Smalling’s header, which went wide of Wayne Hennessey’s post against Wales last week, is the closest we have come to a breakthrough.
England are trying to be too extravagant, with floaty, angled balls towards some of the muscle men lurking on the edge of the area.
There is nothing wrong with putting it in the mixer because there will always be a defender ready to make a mistake under pressure.
Russia, Wales and Slovakia, along with all the other mediocre teams at Euro 2016, have proved that already.
Even Hodgson, who seems to be setting the players up to score the perfect goal, has acknowledged that set-pieces are becoming an issue.
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The Three Lions manager said: “Where we are at fault clearly is that we are not taking all the goal chances we are creating.
"We aren’t using all of that possession in and around the penalty area, all of the corner kicks to score the goal that would have won us the game. That is a fact of life.
“I believe if we keep playing the way we have played, that the goals will come.
“If I think back to the three group games at Euro 2012 and the three games we played there, in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined that we would be so dominant in each of the three games here in France.”
It is clear from England’s training sessions in Chantilly that they are not spending anywhere near enough time practising set-pieces.
They require discipline and patience, a commitment from the coaching staff and management to make them work when they get out on the grass.
That also means working with the framework of the team early and using the fringe players to defend countless balls into the box to perfect it.
It is a necessary evil.
Most of the sessions revolve around ‘the squad’, keeping every one of the 23 names involved, motivated and happy.
Spending hours working on set-pieces invariably alienates other members of the squad when they have to spend time standing around.
Hodgson has been leaning on his goalkeeper coach Dave Watson, an area he also specialises in at Southampton. Clearly, it needs refining.
Eric Dier rose high against Germany from a corner in the 3-2 comeback win
The other problem for the corner taker is precisely who is best to aim for.
When Bertrand began taking left-footed inswingers against Slovakia, there were hardly any goals on the pitch because Rooney was still on the bench.
With the exception of strikers Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge, Cahill (three), Jack Wilshere (two), Smalling (one), Adam Lallana (zero) and Henderson (zero) are far from prolific.
When Rooney entered the fray after 55 minutes, he took responsibility for England’s corners.
However good Hodgson believes his delivery to be, skipper Rooney is also a guaranteed threat in front of goal with 52 strikes for his country in 114 games.
In open play, England are struggling to produce the goods, with Hodgson making his disappointment with Kane and Sturridge obvious in Saint-Etienne.
He has flooded the squad with forwards, but with the exception of Vardy and Sturridge’s dramatic rescue act against Wales, they have failed to gel.
That is something they must work on this week as they prepare for Monday’s second-round clash in Nice.
At some stage, England will have to turn the corner.
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