There was an almost sadistic pride taken in England’s sudden set-piece dominance during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, some strange, probably jingoistic twinge that this was how it always ought to be.
It was old-school stuff, our lads hardened by the physicality of the English game; too big, too brave to be stopped. Indeed, to watch Harry Maguire attack deliveries at that tournament was to wonder how anyone in the Premier League had ever managed it.
The reality, of course, was something a little different, born of twin acknowledgements by Gareth Southgate: that set-pieces accounted for a disproportionate number of major tournament goals and that mastery of the art might cover for the flaws in a team that possessed nothing like the attacking talent of the one about to start this summer’s European Championship in Germany.
Across the course of that World Cup, England scored nine of their 12 goals from set-pieces, a remarkable percentage even if inflated by the reluctance of some teams to get to grips with VAR’s new scrutiny when it came to grappling at corners. (Yes, Panama, that’s you). By the European Championship three summers later, however, that output dipped to three out of 11 goals and then three from 13 at the World Cup in Qatar.
Perhaps that is a sign of progress: as gifted players such as Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham have emerged, England have become more dangerous from open play, their reliance on set plays dwindling substantially without their overall goal tally going anywhere of note.
Southgate, though, has long recognised that set-piece specialism is not simply the preserve of the desperate and the needy.
“When we analysed Spain and Germany in particular, they were probably better at set-plays than the perception might have been,” Southgate said in 2018 of the previous two World Cup winners. “Both play fabulous football, but when you looked at how many set-play goals they’d scored — or in Spain’s case, how few they’d conceded — that was a key part of them being successful.”
Arsenal would not, this season, have pushed Manchester City so close had it not been for their 22 set-piece goals, excluding penalties and including 16 from corners, the latter a joint-Premier League record. Champions City and third-placed Liverpool also ranked in the top four (Sean Dyche’s Everton bucked the trend), while Chelsea have already moved this summer to address one of their numerous failings by recruiting set-piece coach Bernardo Cueva from Brentford.
Allan Russell, the attacking coach credited with much of England’s success in Russia, left the set-up ahead of Euro 2020, but Paul Nevin, part of David Moyes’s coaching staff at West Ham where there was heavy set-piece focus, has taken on the responsibility.
Unlike in the run-up to Qatar, which consisted of just five days, England have had a full fortnight on the training ground ahead of Sunday’s opener against Serbia. And what of the tools at their disposal? Delivery-wise, England are well-stocked. Kieran Trippier was the set-piece master in 2018 and will start at left-back for as long as Luke Shaw takes to get fit, the one positive to the trade-off that leaves England short of balance from open play.
Declan Rice has been taking corners for Arsenal with great success, while Foden and Saka both offer good options off the left foot. Should Trent Alexander-Arnold get the nod to start in midfield, he would be the best of the lot.
Less encouraging, though, is England’s aerial threat. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are forces, but Maguire — the third-highest scorer in Southgate’s provisional squad — will be a huge miss and there are lingering doubts over John Stones’s fitness. Ezri Konsa and Marc Guehi are the leading candidates to partner Stones, but have two goals between them in the last two seasons of club football; Lewis Dunk is more prolific, but has looked shaky at the back; Joe Gomez has famously not scored a senior goal in his life.
At both ends, set-pieces have the potential to tilt the tightest of knockout games. That has been the case, one way or another, in the three most gut-wrenching defeats of Southgate’s tenure: Mario Mandzukic from a quick throw, Leonardo Bonucci from a corner, Kane over the bar from 12 yards against France.
Rediscover 2018’s penchant and England will swell their chance of laying those demons to rest.
