Gary Bowyer Tactics At Burton Albion 2024/2025: Back Post Corner Expertise – Set-Piece Analysis

It was a tale of two halves for Burton Albion in the 2024/2025 EFL League One season.

By the middle of December, after 19 games played in the league, Burton had just two wins and 12 points in League One, sitting in 23rd place, nine points away from safety.

The poor form resulted in a change in managers, with Gary Bowyer and assistant manager Pat Lyons coming in to steady the ship.

Together, they helped finally drag the Brewers out of the relegation spots in the final four weeks of the season.

Since Bowyer’s arrival, Burton have been the 11th-best club in the league, which shows just how valuable a good manager can be.

Gary Bowyer’s arrival brought success to the club, mainly through his ability to get the best out of new signing Rumarn Burrell, who scored 11 league goals, all of them coming after Bowyer joined.

One of his biggest strengths has been his ability to affect zonal defenders during set-pieces, alongside his speed and quality in transition, which contributed to a majority of his goals.

Burton Albion have only scored 10 goals from set pieces, which puts them at the lower end of the set-piece league.

However, this doesn’t mean their set pieces are poor.

In fact, since the managerial change, they have been the strongest set-piece team in terms of xG per corner.

They are the only team in the league with over 0.04 xG per corner, which shows that they consistently generate good chances from corner kicks.

However, they have found some issues finishing their chances, meaning their output doesn’t match their good performances in corner kicks.

EFL League One xG Per Corner Stats

Below, we can see Burton Albion’s set-piece xG from game to game this season.

The change in manager originally did not give much of a set-piece boost, but after some time to implement his ideas, Gary Bowyer’s side has had a clear upturn in set-piece xG, with the last 11 matches giving the best 11 set-piece performances since the first games of the season.

Burton Albion xG From Set-Pieces

This tactical analysis will examine Burton Albion’s attacking corner routines, focusing on how they favour the far side of the six-yard box through structured screens and well-timed arrivals.

We will explore how Burton creates space for delivery and isolates target players, using a mix of goalkeeper and zonal screens, late arrivals, and dual-role players to disrupt the defensive organisation.

A standout feature of this set-piece analysis of Burton’s approach is their consistent ability to open the target area and free the intended receiver through floating deliveries and blindside screens, allowing them to generate chances even without elite technical execution from the taker.

This allows them to adapt their patterns flexibly, exploiting both near and far post zones depending on the opposition setup while maintaining high potential for second-phase opportunities.

Burton Albion Attacking Corner Tactics

Almost every Burton Albion goal from set-pieces has come through the far side of the six-yard box.

Exploiting a space at the near side can often be difficult due to the speed and precision the delivery requires.

As a result, Burton has done a good job of making the life of the corner taker easier by targeting the far side of the six-yard box through floated crosses.

This gives attackers more time to react and adapt to the ball’s path and then arrive at the space the ball arrives in with the correct timing.

In the clip below, we go through the routine that has been the most impressive and well-coordinated for Burton.

It involves three key screens so that the target player arrives to attack the ball unopposed.

The defending side seems to have the situation under control in terms of numbers and structure, but this is where good timing of screens shows just how valuable it can be.

There are always two elements in attacking corner kicks:

1. Open the Target Area
2. Free the Target Player

The first, the target area, depends on the quality of the taker.

A consistent taker who can strike the ball well, only needs a small space to be open, to deliver the ball into.

However, when the quality isn’t at the top level seen in top European clubs, the target space needs to be increased to give the taker a bigger chance of accurately delivering the ball.

The clip shows that the back post area will be targeted.

In order to create as much space as possible, Burton Albion use two blocks: one on the goalkeeper, who is the biggest threat to all crosses, and one on the nearest zonal defender.

Both screens arrive from the blindside as the ball is delivered, maximising the probability of success for the screen.

Furthermore, no attackers start in the target area, only arriving as the ball does, to again, keep the space open.

To free the target player, only one screen is necessary to slow down the target’s marker, allowing him to arrive in the zone freely.

We can see #17 only has his attention to the marker of the attacker highlighted in green.

The attacker in green purposely arcs his run as close to #17 as possible, to bring the defender to the screener as close as possible.

Once all these elements come into life at the same time, we can see the space is free to enter, and the attacker has no one attempting to disrupt his run.

The attacker arrives slightly too early and has to improvise for his attempt on goal, so the effort doesn’t go in, but we can see almost every element of a corner kick being executed perfectly.

The players not highlighted in the clips still have useful roles.

Firstly, to drag the defenders away from protecting the back space, and secondly, to arrive around the six-yard box to try and win loose balls and control the second phase.

While we stated previously the aims of exploiting space at the back post, Burton have been flexible to also exploit the space on the near side of the six-yard box, when the opponent offered up the space.

This shows a level of adaptability and vision in Burton Albion’s set plays, as they react to the spaces opponents give instead of only looking to stay in their comfort zone.

The clip below again shows the player in red setting a screen on the nearest defender to the target zone, freeing up the path for the ball to the white zone.

However, in this case, no attacker is freed up.

What gives Burton success here is Burrell’s individual quality in the aerial duel.

Different game, same objectives again, with Burton going for the back post area, but this time all attackers start in the space.

The attacker in green moves back a couple of yards to give himself the time and space to time his arrival onto the ball.

Again, the screens are made, blocking the goalkeeper and the marker of the nearest attacker to allow the target player to arrive without disruption.

It is impressive to see the work Burton do, to provide some players with double roles, like the goalscorer here who blocks the path of the goalkeeper, and then returns onside to be ready to attack the second balls.

Burton Albion have tried to use a floating screen on numerous occasions.

This involves the player setting the screen starting far from the attacker, to intercept the path of his marker midway through the run, rather than at the start.

The benefit of this is that often, during the tracking moment, the defender has his full focus on the attacker, meaning they will not expect the screen to arrive, or at least won’t see it coming.

However, this must involve the attacker moving as close to the screener as possible.

As the defender moves at speed, it’s hard for the screener to move in time to block the path, so the defender must be dragged as close to the screener as possible to give him the opportunity to take one step into his path.

As the run is further from the screener, he has no time to set the screen.

Timing is the key to the success of this routine and the success of most effective set-pieces.

Arriving in the space as the ball does allows you to attack the ball with momentum and prevents opponents from being there to affect the player.

Waiting to attack the ball is only effective if there is a player who is vastly superior aerially so that their headed effort is unaffected even in the presence of opposition pressure.

This is also only if that player has the ability to generate enough power onto their headed effort to beat the keeper, without needing the boost you get from arriving in the space at speed.

The following two clips show the difference between a well-timed arrival and a poorly timed one.

Below, we can see the same routine, but the attacker arrives towards the back post, but early enough to attract multiple defenders with him.

As a result, he cannot attack the ball at speed, so the goalkeeper easily saves his headed effort.

Furthermore, because of his early arrival attracting defenders, the attacker is up against multiple defenders in the aerial duel.

While he still wins the first contact, he is disrupted enough not to be able to head the ball as well as he possibly could.

In the clip below, we can see that the attacker’s good timing allows him to head the ball just as he arrives, generating enough power to pass the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

There has been a slight issue in the crosses to the near and middle zones of the six-yard box, where the delivery misses the first players, but Burton have done well to recover by making sure players arrive in all different zones of the penalty area.

Whilst they arrive marked in these different zones, having enough of a presence to compete for the first contact anywhere in the box, allows Burton to generate opportunities from almost every set-piece, even if it is through a second-phase opportunity like in the clip below.

Conclusion

Burton Albion’s corner routines show how innovative structure and good timing can go a long way, even without top-tier technical quality.

By consistently targeting the far post with floated deliveries, they give their attackers time to adjust and arrive with momentum rather than relying on pinpoint crosses into tight spaces.

Their use of screens (especially on the goalkeeper and key defenders) helps open up space and free target players at just the right moment.

Even when things don’t go perfectly, Burton make sure they’ve got bodies arriving across different zones, ready to attack second balls and keep the pressure on.

What really stands out is their ability to adapt, switching between far and near post routines based on the opponent’s instructions.

Overall, it’s a great example of how clear roles, clever movement, and attention to detail in set-piece planning can create consistent goal-scoring chances.