A large share of rehearsed corner routines aim for the space in front of the near post rather than the far side of the goal. The reason is timing rather than target size.
The near post is the shortest flight
A ball delivered toward the near post arrives sooner than one aimed at the back of the six-yard box. Every fraction of a second removed from the flight is a fraction removed from the defense's reaction time.
Defenders in a zonal setup are positioned before the kick, but their movement to the ball begins when they read the flight. A shorter flight compresses that read.
Attackers, by contrast, start moving before the ball is struck because they know where it is going. The delivery is timed to a run rather than a spot.
The flick changes the ball's direction
A near post header does not usually go straight at goal. It redirects the ball across the face, sending it into the area behind the defenders who have already committed forward.
This is difficult to defend because the ball changes direction inside the box, so every defender's positioning becomes wrong at once. Recovery runs start from a standing position.
Attackers arriving at the far post have the easier job of the routine. They are running onto a slow, high-percentage ball while defenders are turning.
Goalkeepers are the main victims
A goalkeeper reads the delivery and decides whether to leave the line, and the near post ball forces that decision earliest. Committing to a ball that is then flicked leaves the goal open.
Staying is also punished, because the flick lands in an area the goalkeeper cannot reach from the line. The routine is designed to make both options wrong.
This is why goalkeepers position deeper against near post specialists, accepting a worse starting point for a longer look at the flight.
How defenses respond
The standard answer is to post a defender specifically in the near zone whose only job is to attack the first ball. That player does not mark anyone.
Some teams add a second body just behind, covering the flick rather than the delivery. The cost is that two defenders are removed from marking duties elsewhere.
Attacking teams exploit that cost by running players into the space those defenders vacated. The routine becomes a negotiation over which zone gets left open.
Why delivery quality decides everything
The near post ball has a narrow margin. Too flat and it reaches the front defender; too deep and it becomes an ordinary cross into a crowded area.
Teams that use the routine well usually have one taker who hits the same ball repeatedly, because the attackers time their runs to a known trajectory. Changing takers changes the routine.
That dependence explains why some sides lose their set piece threat entirely when one player is unavailable. The pattern was built around a specific delivery.