It seems a long time ago since Roy Hodgson put Harry Kane on corner duty at the Euros, now England are set-piece kings with an incredible 75% of their goals (9 out of 12 goals scored) at the World Cup coming from set-piece situations (penalties, free kicks + corners), breaking Portugal’s record (that has stood since 1966) of most set-piece goals in a World Cup. This is not down to luck and instead the rewards of a focused effort by the entire team and coaching staff so what are the key components behind England’s set-piece success?
Research
Research is a highly underrated aspect of football managers, analysts, coaches and players all need to be constantly learning and looking at trends in football to gain as much knowledge as possible, whilst possibly identifying potential trends that they could potentially exploit to give the team an edge. Gareth Southgate identified set-pieces as a potential area in which England could gain this edge saying
“On set plays, we’re a real threat we’ve identified that as a key area in tournaments and a key area we felt we could improve on.”
Southgate took a trip to America in February, where he went to Minnesota to watch and study both an American Football and a Basketball game over 2 days to study details that he could relate back to football.
American Football is renowned for the “plays” that happen during the game, essentially a series of rehearsed and pre-planned moves where players make designated runs and actions. With a bit of organisation, these well planned and rehearsed plays are certainly possible from set-pieces in football, I even have my own “play-book” of every set-piece routine I’ve seen and liked with each players role detailed and drawn out much like American Football coaches would have. I’d be willing to wager that Southgate and his team also have a playbook of sorts.
Basketball also has plays, but it was the more technical aspects of basketball that Southgate was interested in that he could use to help enhance England’s set-piece threat creating space in tight situations, the “pick and roll” (essentially screening or blocking an opposition player to allow a team-mate space to run towards the basket).
Not content with relying on what he saw, Southgate also apparently quizzed people around him about the tactical aspects on show during the games impressing those there, particularly some of the board at MLS club Minnesota United, whose minority owner Ben Grossman in an interview with the Wall Street Journal had the following to say about Southgate:
I know this is going to sound a little silly, but I actually left that night expecting England to do well in the World Cup. You could just tell the way he went about his business that he was going to leave no stone unturned.
Staff
With the above knowledge gained, it was important that Southgate built on that by hiring the right people to further enhance England’s chances.
Allan Russell had a long playing career in football, plying his trade in Scotland (for teams like St Mirren and Hamilton) before swapping Scotland for the lower leagues in England playing for Mansfield and Forest Green Rovers before moving to American and spending a few seasons with Carolina Railhawks and Orange County Blues FC before retiring. After retiring from football Russell became an attacking coach, quickly building a reputation for himself as one of the best-attacking coaches in the game, working with elite forwards such as Wilfried Zaha, Andre Gray, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Euro 2016 winner Eder.
Russell was hired by Southgate in March 2017 and instantly joined the England set-up, working with every age-group alongside coaching both the mens and womens England teams. The players seem to respond well to Russell’s sessions, with Harry Kane having the following to say:
Allan gives us great sessions, he tells us about the positioning of their defenders, the goalkeeper and what weaknesses we should look to exploit.
Like Southgate, Russell also used his time in America to take inspiration from the NFL saying that “I looked at the NFL and the detail that goes into getting an extra 1% out of these guys is incredible. I took aspects of that into what I am doing now.
Russell also advised at Chelsea, where Southgate’s number 2, Steve Holland was assistant manager between the years of 2011-2017 it is worth noting that during Holland’s time at the Blues that Chelsea topped the charts for set-piece goals during their 16/17 title-winning season with 24 goals from set-piece situations with 13 of those coming from corners alone.
Routines
With all the building blocks in place, it was time for all the hard work to be executed on the pitch, the first game against Tunisia saw England net from 2 corners the first coming after just 10 minutes.
vs Tunisia
Firstly Jesse Lingard comes across to provide the short option dragging 2 Tunisian players across and out of the danger zone. Both Sterling and Alli occupy positions on the edge of the 6-yard box, whilst Kane, Stones, Maguire and Henderson all hover on the edge of the area. I don’t understand their reasoning behind it, but Tunisia choose to make the main attacking quartet with just 3 players instantly putting England on the front foot.
Henderson makes an attacking run to Sterlings marker (presumably thinkiKeep Reading TFA With A Free 7 Day Trial
Try TFA Risk Free For 7 Days
