Beat a packed box with a short corner. Combine to draw a defender out and change the angle of delivery, then cut it back from the better position for a runner to finish.
From a corner, the taker plays short to a supporting player who has come to the flag. Combine, a one-two or an overlap, to draw a defender out and open the angle, then deliver a cutback into the box for a finish. Have a planned second action after the short pass. Rehearse it and rotate.
Playing a corner short trades a delivery into the box for a better angle to deliver from, and whether that trade is worth making depends entirely on what happens next. The version everyone has seen, where two players pass it between themselves until a defender arrives and the ball goes out for a throw, is what gives the short corner its bad name.
The trade is genuinely favourable when the box is packed. Against eight or nine defenders in the six-yard area, a whipped corner is a lottery, and the keeper has the advantage because he can attack a crowded space with his hands. Moving the ball five yards along the byline changes the delivery angle enough that the same cross now goes across the defence rather than into it, and it drags at least one defender out of that crowd.
The overload is the mechanism. A second player joining the taker creates a two against one, and defences must either send someone out, which thins the box, or leave it, which gives a free man time to deliver from an improved position. Both outcomes are better than the original corner.
The finish should usually be a cutback rather than a cross. From the improved angle the ball can be pulled back towards the penalty spot, where runners arrive facing goal while defenders are facing their own. That is the same geometry that makes an open-play cutback so valuable, manufactured from a dead ball.
Save it to your private drills, then change the animation, adjust positions, swap equipment, or drop it into a session block. Or start from a blank pitch and build your own.