Tactical Theory: How Brentford’s Kick-Off Tactics Create Goals

“It’s one of the more difficult to score from, but we see it as a set-play situation we can set up and control as much as possible.”

That was Thomas Frank’s press conference message regarding kick-offs after a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham.

That defeat marked back-to-back EPL matches with a first-minute goal.

They would go on to do it a third time against West Ham the following week, then follow that up with a second-minute goal against Wolves.

Speaking to Vavel, Frank said, “First and foremost, it is not a coincidence. It’s not like we just roll it back and kick it forward; we maybe roll it back and maybe kick it forward, or maybe we do something, but there are clear roles for everyone involved. The way we capitalised in the end is fantastic but also a bit of [the] margin going our way.”

There’s more than luck in these Brentford kick-offs.

Ultimately, there’s a set-piece design that facilitates early chances on goal.

In this tactical theory piece, we’ll look at the concepts underlying Brentfords successful kick-offs under Thomas Franks coaching style.

Rather than examining the routines one at a time, our tactical analysis examines the principles of kick-offs through their stages.

First, this analysis will look at different ways to organise the team from the onset, then move to progression through a forward pass into target areas.

Progression is the middle ground before the final pass that attacks the box.

Assessing the set pieces in stages will give an idea of the possibilities and different objectives as kick-offs are diagramed on the tactics board.

Organising The Kick-Off

The organisation of the kick-offs is the critical starting ground.

As Frank said, each player has a particular role to play.

Their starting position plays a critical factor in each players ability to fulfil their duties.

Even from the starting positions, we can see different setups and intentions under Thomas Franks style of play.

Two of the first questions to address are “What is the desired target area?” and “Does it benefit the team to take a symmetric or asymmetric physical approach?”

In the images below, a red-shaded area indicates the targeted zone.

That helps us relate the starting positions of the players to their end goal.

Looking at this Brentford kick-off against West Ham, pairs flank the kick-off circle with two additional players on either side approximately 5 m off the midfield line.

At the back, Brentford keeps three.

In response, West Ham is forced to cover more ground.

While the first two lines are vertically compact, they have to prepare for Brentford to play across the full width of the pitch.

Given that Brentford is targetin