Set-pieces are still the most likely avenue to scoring regularly in football.
We used to spend hours on creating and defending set-pieces, as it was the one area where physicality and strength often outweighed technical ability.
There was still a requirement for technical ability in the delivery, but once you mastered that art, then it was all about the bodies in the box.
It's not the fact that opponents are robustly defending our set-pieces, it's just that we don't look remotely threatening or dangerous from them.
Modern day equipment (particularly the balls) mean that it should be relatively simple to whip a decent ball into the box. A lack of threat in this area is costing us a minimum of 15 goals a season. That's a lot of points potentially being lost because we can't cross a dead ball into the box and none of our target men can accurately head a ball.
You can even argue that it's often the second-ball, flick, or knock-down that leads to a clearer opportunity. We can't even benefit from that?
JVofH and big Sammy maybe weren't as potent as they could have been in directly scoring from set-pieces, but they caused enough disruption and panic to ensure a second opportunity would arise. That's a feature that's missing from this current team and it's costing us big time (particularly in European ties).