Brentford Football Club are in their first season in the Premier League after achieving promotion last season. Brentford have been transformed by their owner Matthew Bentham who has brought an innovative and data-driven approach to all aspects of the club and their approach is often referred to as ‘Moneyball’. This applies to all aspects of the football club from recruitment to their emphasis on set pieces.
Set-pieces have always been a significant part of the game of football however the understanding of their importance has been on the rise. More and more clubs are now employing a set-piece coach and Brentford themselves have had a history of set-piece coaches with Bernardo Cueva now in the role. Brentford and their sister club FC Midtjylland both believe in the importance of set pieces and providing innovative ideas to utilise this facet of the game. In addition, they believe in assigning the practice time to set pieces that they warrant in order to increase the teams understanding of them. Brentford has sought the use of set pieces as a way of creating goals and goal-scoring opportunities to help them this season, leading the league in XG from set-pieces and recording eight set-piece goals this season.
The following tactical analysis and set-piece analysis aims to understand how Brentford has brought an innovative and effective approach to their attacking set-pieces this season in the Premier League.
Throw Ins
If you have managed to watch Brentford at some point this season you will have noticed the use of a long throw. With both Ethan Pinnock and Sorensen having the ability to throw the ball deep into the opposition box, this has led to Thomas Franks men using throw-ins in the opposition half to create goal-scoring opportunities. Long throws are rare with most teams electing to retain possession and the skill of a long throw isn’t often come by in players. With Brentford being very conscious of the importance of set pieces this may have been considered when recruiting both Sorensen and Pinnock.
With long throw-ins, very rarely is a goal scored of the first contact however the second contact is usually where either goals or shots occur. This is due to the pace of the ball being much slower than a free kick or corner. The following two examples are where Brentford have scored from long throw’s this season. Long throws can be very hard to defend and can create chaos in the box and this is something Brentford do well. Below is a typical set-up for a long throw against Manchester United, both Jansson and Pinnock are set up ready to win the flick on with three players looking to make runs to attack the flick on if won. Brentford also likes to have three players outside the box, to win the ball if it leaves the box but also to nullify any counter if they occur.
The ball will always be travelling towards goal, so if there’s any minimal contact it will go in or on target and with Jansson and Pinnock in the keeper’s eye line they are looking to be awkward.
As the ball comes in Pinnock gets up to flick the ball on, with Jansson looking to get in the way of De Gea with the other Brentford players looking to attack the ball.
