Why Brentford’s varied and complex corner routines have reaped rewards for Thomas Frank’s men – set-piece analysis

Thomas Franks team is very distinctive in set pieces, whether from free kicks, throw-ins, corners, or even goal kicks. Their playing style relies on maximising the benefit from set pieces, but in this tactical analysis, we will discuss how they are excellent and different in their brilliant corner routines. This set-piece analysis shows the different tactics they use like short corners, flicks and packs.

Short corners

The first main idea we will talk about is the numerical superiority in the short-corner area. In the first photo, we see four players, highlighted in green, against two players, in yellow. The taker passes it directly to the player with the black arrow.

To know why that looks simple, we need to go to the second pictiure where Leicester City defend with five zonal players, in green, three man markers in the black area and two players for the short option and the rebound. Brentford have their all ten players in the shot which is risky, but achieve the numerical superiority around the short and rebound zone. When the player who has the ball passes the ball to his teammate, the player with the yellow arrow stepped back, dragging Leicesters last zonal player.

In the third photo, the taker, highlighted with a yellow arrow, runs behind Leicesters line while they try to reorganise their high line. The five zonal players, in green, can stand as a line, but the two short-option players, with black arrows, still try while the taker, with the yellow arrow behind them, runs in their blind side.

The most important note in this routine is Brentfords four players who still stand in the offside zone which makes James Maddison late with his marker and worried about this situation, so the corner taker is onside. This trick also helps Brentfords players to get the cross easily from the taker, as shown in the fourth photo.