Following a slow start to the summer, Swansea City fans have been treated to a flurry of activity of late.
Nathan Wood, Wasiri Williams and Harry Darling have all sealed moves to the Swansea.com Stadium, but it was confirmation of Andy Parslow's appointment as set-piece coach which showed the Swans are pulling out all of the stops to solve a key problem.
Russell Martin's men scored 53 Championship goals from open play last season, a tally bettered only by Fulham and Bournemouth - who both gained automatic promotion. However, their total of just two goals from set plays was comfortably the lowest in the division, with 18 of the 24 sides in the second tier hitting double figures when it came to goals bagged from set-pieces.
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Swansea's lack of height was a key issue when it came to bulging the net from free-kicks, and corners in particular, hence the frustrating training ground routines which yielded precious little reward during the course of Martin's debut season in south Wales. But with Ben Cabango and Darling now in the squad, they can cause defences far more problems in the air from set plays.
Defensively, the Swans conceded 10 times from set plays in the Championship last term which was the joint-ninth best tally, so that was somewhat encouraging given the significant turnaround at the club just a year ago combined with the drastic change in playing style. But with former AFC Wimbledon coach Parslow now on board, Swansea will feel confident on improving in both boxes next season.
Prior to Parslow's arrival at AFC Wimbledon, the Plough Lane outfit had scored the lowest number of goals from attacking set-pieces during the 2019/20 campaign and conceded the second highest tally of goals from set plays, but they drastically improved and ended the campaign with the joint-most goals scored from wide free-kicks in the country.
The 31-year-old linked up with Swansea at their Pennyhill Park training camp earlier this week and, like the rest of the coaching staff and playing personnel, will significantly benefit from having a full pre-season with the club following the uncertainty surrounding the build-up to the 2021/22 season. And Russell Martin says Parslow caught the eye after presenting a bumper dossier on Swansea's set plays from last season during his interview with the club.
"It's an area we need to improve on," said the head coach. "Andy has real expertise in that area and has had great results with his previous club.
"He was really enthusiastic from the off, and we spoke to quite a few people about that role. We had been looking at what we wanted to do around the first-team staff to support us and the players, and I really think it is going to help us.
"He really impressed us when we spoke to him, he presented to us his ideas on our set-pieces from last year and he had done a lot of research and work on that. It's a clear area that can make the difference, and we have to be better at it. I think if you look at Huddersfield and Luton's record from set pieces last season, that played a big part in them getting to where they did in the league.
"We scored a lot of goals from open play last year which was brilliant, but now we need to add something else to our armoury and that is set-pieces. It's the mentality around them, the time and effort that goes into analysing opposition weaknesses and strengths, as well as identifying ours and making sure we've got something that works."
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