In Association Football (Soccer), why is it that the defending team ends up clearing the vast majority of corners?

Question

I’ve been watching the sport for years now and it still baffles me why corners have a such low-return percentage for the attacking team. How is it that the ball almost always finds the head of a defending player?

In: 3

Answer 1

The keeper has a lot of help defending the goal. Defenders on both posts reduce the area the keeper needs to cover. Every attacker should be covered by a defender of similar height, standing between the attacker and the goal. The corner kick taker should be covered as well. And all the defenders need to do is clear the ball, where as the attackers have to get the ball past the keeper and multiple defenders.