Set Pieces Win Matches
Who are the EFL's best and worst set-piece teams, in each box? Featuring Cardiff, Derby, Wrexham and one club conceding literally the most penalties in the world.
Ali Maxwell
What matters when it comes to being a good team in the Football League?
In an EFL football match in the 2023/24 season, the ball is in play for 52 minutes on average in League One and League Two, and for 55 minutes in the Championship. If the game involves Southampton, Leicester or Notts County, it’s in play for around 59 minutes. If the game involves Stevenage or Sutton United, it’s more like 47.
To be a strong football team, it’s important to be good while the ball is in play – regularly creating shooting opportunities, and restricting the opposition from doing so. How your team performs in open play is the biggest factor in its success or failure.
Then there are SET PIECES.
Set pieces are a brilliant part of the greatest sport in the world. They are the game’s great leveller. In a low-scoring sport, where the majority of matches are either drawn or decided by a single-goal margin, they can be a way for sides with less quality in general play – something that generally correlates to wage budgets – to punch upwards.
I view set pieces as a kind of football version of Snakes & Ladders. Having set-piece quality is like landing on a ladder: it elevates you to the next level. Being poor at set pieces is landing on a snake: it undermines your quality in general play and drags you down a level. Unlike Snakes & Ladders, however, set-piece quality is based on skill rather than luck.
In the EFL this season, set pieces account for 20-25% of all goals. The Championship has the fewest SP goals and the lowest proportion, at 20%. League One has the highest proportion of goals scored from set pieces: 23.7%. And the free-wheeling, high-scoring League Two presents the most set-piece goals in total, but that’s 22.5% of all the goals scored. These numbers don’t include penalties, which account for 5% of all goals in the Championship, 7% in League One and 6.2% in League Two.
Set pieces are a key part of EFL battleground. Set-piece dominance is important. It’s not just about scoring them, but stopping the opposition from doing so.
So, who in the EFL has the best set-piece record this season? Let’s find out…
Opta Analyst is a fantastic resource for reliable EFL data. I’m using their set-piece goal numbers to power the majority of this analysis: goals that occur as a result of a corner, direct free-kick, indirect free-kick or throw-in. But this still isn’t a perfect science, because, for example, an own goal scored from a set-piece situation wouldn’t be included in this category. Stats, eh?! Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
Championship
In the Championship, Cardiff City lead the way.
The Bluebirds have perched on about three ladders with their set-piece quality. For a team to be in the top half of the table despite generating the third-worst open play xG in the league, per Opta Analyst, and the fourth-worst xG against… that’s Set Piece Magic.
Of those 20 set-piece goals, 17 have come from corners. The next-best team for corner goals have scored 11. This is particularly impressive given that only one team has had fewer corners than Cardiff. They’ve scored from 9% of their corners this season, with Norwich next-best at 5%.
The delivery of Joe Ralls (5 SP assists) and Ryan Wintle (2). The big foreheads of Dimitrios Goutas, Mark McGuinness, Nat Phillips and Perry Ng. It’s incredibly potent.
Here are some of Cardiff’s wins where every goal came from a corner: QPR (2-1), Preston (2-1), Millwall (1-0), Bristol City (1-0), Sunderland (1-0). It’s a humongous edge that has been found in Wales’ capital city, and accounts for so many points.
Last week, manager Erol Bulut seemingly hit back at those who have suggested that Cardiff’s league position is something of a ‘false position’.
"In the press, sometimes I am reading these things: someone wants to show that all our work this season is bad. This, I do not accept. I know what my guys did this season – what we did all this season. No one can speak badly about our work.”
I certainly won’t speak badly about the set-piece work. You could say it’s been Cardiff’s… silver bulut.
Cardiff have also been helped by the fact that opposition teams have scored five own goals for them – the most in the Championship. Coventry’s Liam Kitching was kind enough to score two OGs for Cardiff earlier this month. The result? A 2-1 win for Bulut’s men.
SET PIECES COULD DECIDE PROMOTION TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE!
Dramatic, I know. But the margins at the top are tighter than a gnat’s arse, and Ipswich have a +8 goal difference compared to Leeds’ 0 and Leicester’s -2.
In the Premier League, the top teams (Arsenal and Manchester City) now dominate set pieces as well as general play. Pleasingly for fans of competitive balance, that’s not the case in the Championship, where Leeds and Leicester have poor set-piece output despite utter dominance in many aspects of play.
Goals = points. Leif Davis’ pinpoint delivery and some clever routines have given Ipswich an edge over their title rivals.
There’s a school of thought, prominent on social media, that Ipswich have been ‘getting lucky’ this season. Late goals, deflected goals – that kind of thing. What if I told you that Ipswich have scored six own goals, the most in the Championship? Five different Tractor Boys have scored OGs! What’s going on there? Some sort of karmic balancing for the deflections?
It’s also interesting to note that, while penalty goals aren’t included in the set piece statistics, a team’s penalty numbers can also make a big difference. And so I present, without comment, the following:
Leicester - 12 penalties awarded, 12 scored.
Leeds - 8 penalties awarded, 6 scored.
Ipswich - 3 penalties awarded, 2 scored.
Elsewhere, it’s hard to ignore that Blackburn and Plymouth Argyle have scored only five goals from set pieces. Lads, you may as well just get back into your defensive shape and put the ball out for a goal kick. On a serious note, this led me to a more positive discovery: only five teams in the Championship have scored more goals from open play than Argyle and Rovers, with 51 apiece. Impressive.
Where would Huddersfield and Millwall be without set pieces? Centre-back Michał Helik is Huddersfield’s top scorer with nine goals. NINE GOALS. NINE. Unfortunately, the Terriers’ defensive zeal hasn’t always matched their attacking threat. But Millwall’s +6 SP goal difference is a big edge over fellow relegation rivals. According to Opta, 42% of their total xG this season has come from set-piece scenarios.
We all love a direct free-kick goal, so let’s note that Norwich have scored three of those – one from Gabriel Sara and two from Marcelino Núñez. Nine teams in the league haven’t scored a single one. The equation seems simple: buy South American stars, get free-kick goals. Sara also has six assists from set pieces.
And, as someone who appreciates teams that eke goals out from anywhere, I want to celebrate West Bromwich Albion, who have scored three goals from throw-ins in a league where 14 teams have scored none. For the team whose kits once resembled Tesco carrier bags, every little helps.
League One
Derby County have had issues in the #9 spot this season. The good news is that Set Pieces has been a 20+ goal striker for them. With the best SP goal difference in the entire EFL, they’ve scored five more goals than League One’s next-most prolific set piece team, and no team has conceded fewer, either.
Derby are highly likely to secure automatic promotion, and a study of the anatomy of that promotion will highlight two things: a watertight defence and a specialism in set pieces. Given the financial benefits of League One → Championship promotion, Conor Hourihane’s left foot should be insured for a million quid.
League One champions Portsmouth made sure they thrived in these situations. Centre-back Conor Shaughnessy will go down in Pompey folklore: signed in the summer, he scored three separate stoppage-time winners with thumping headers, for six extra points gained.
Stevenage are the other side for whom set pieces have been a large net positive. Carl Piergianni has had 58 shots this season, the most of any centre-back in the EFL.
In the set piece relegation zone? Port Vale, Charlton and Shrewsbury. For Vale to have played a 3-at-the-back formation for most of the season and still conceded 20 goals from set pieces is almost unforgivable. Under Nathan Jones, Charlton fans are talking themselves into a Portsmouth-style push for promotion next season – if so, set pieces should be high on the agenda. Six scored? Do better. As for Shrewsbury, they’ve scored the fewest goals from open play, have the second-worst set piece record and failed to score in exactly half of their matches… how are they six points clear of the relegation zone, again?
Other morsels of joy, with love from me to you:
Fleetwood have scored AND conceded three direct free kicks – the most in the league for both. Windy?
Reading and Cheltenham have made the most of throw-ins as an attacking opportunity, each scoring three goals from them.
Portsmouth have scored 11 penalties, four more than anyone else. Reading, Fleetwood and Shrewsbury haven’t scored a single pen, missing four between them.
Cheltenham have scored 7 OGs. Hapless.
You’d think that, generally, a team that is good at attacking set pieces might also be good at defending them. Not Peterborough, who are committed, as ever, to entertainment and goals. Only two sides have scored more from set pieces, but only three have conceded more. Too Posh to defend?
League Two
Stockport and Walsall have both scored more than half a goal a game from set pieces — that’s the sort of effectiveness that really gets my pulse racing. Stockport currently have a one-goal lead over Sadler’s Saddlers (and Paul Warne’s Derby) in the battle for the ‘Most Set Piece Goals In The EFL’ title. Walsall’s 18 corner goals means they’re even more horny for corners than Cardiff City.
However, both teams have taken their eye off the ball inside their own box, because neither are in the top three for SP goal difference.
Mansfield lead the way on that front. It makes sense: they have Aden Flint in their team. Riddle me this, though – from just over 5xG generated this season, Flint has only scored two goals.
Of course, it’s no surprise that a team with its own TV show would excel when it comes to set pieces, am I right?! Wrexham AFC. Lots of big fellas. Lots of James McClean crosses. Ben Tozer’s long-throwzer. Wowza.
But here’s another reason to love League Two’s surprise package, Crawley Town. Alongside Mansfield’s Big Stags and Wrexham’s Beefy Boys, there’s a touch of the ‘Polar Bear in Arlington Texas’ about their appearance here.
After all, in general play, they are a pretty, technical, possession-based side with a number of small, technical types.
But they have Will Wright. He has one of the nicest ball-striking techniques you’ll see at this level, and has scored two direct free-kicks this season as well as providing three set-piece assists.
They also have Laurence Maguire, brother of one of the all-time great English headerers. Dion Conroy, Harry Ransom and Jay Williams all defend their box with zeal to contribute to an excellent defensive record.
Looking at the bottom of the table, it seems pertinent that Grimsby and Colchester both sit just above the bottom two, desperately keeping relegation at arm’s length but in very different ways: both sides have a goal difference of -17, but whereas Grimsby’s set piece goal difference is +8, Colchester’s is -8, for a sixteen-goal swing.
Grimsby have made survival a lot easier for themselves; ColU, quite the opposite. On top of that, Colchester have missed all three of their penalties (they’re the only League Two team with zero goals from the spot, and they also missed all three in a cup shootout against Cardiff) AND they’ve scored a league-leading 5 own goals. I’m sorry, but that is quite a funny level of haplessness.
But haplessness, this season, comes in black and white stripes. Notts County have conceded 17 (SEVENTEEN) penalties, and conceded 13 of them. By contrast, Tranmere Rovers haven’t given away a single spot-kick.
In some sort of wonky homage to Nottingham’s finest, Robin Hood, Notts have been clumsily charitable, stealing from themselves and giving to the… well, everyone else. Unsurprisingly, using Stathead, we can deduce that this is the most penalties conceded by any team playing in the 60+ leagues covered by FBref.com.
OBVIOUSLY! DON’T DIVE IN, FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE.
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What the hell is the what the hell is a polar bear doing in Arlington, Texas doing in a NTT20 long read?