The Set Piece Specialists: Brentford
A game analysis of Brentfords set pieces
Brentford are known for being very good at set pieces. They are innovative in their use of data and analytics and create a lot of goals and scoring chances. How good are they compared to the rest of the Premier League? And what is behind their high creation of chances ang goals from this set-pieces? In this article I will try to find answers to these two questions. To answer the latter, I’ve looked at Brentford’s set pieces in the match against Nottingham Forest on January 20. I’ve limited my research to offensive free kicks and corners.
How good are Brentford at set pieces?
Figure-a. XgSP shows the xG from set pieces for each of the teams (including penalties). The data is taken from xgscore.
The short answer is that Brentford are the fourth best team in the Premier League at set pieces. As of January 24, 2024 they are fourth in the Premier League for xG (expected goals) table for set pieces. Here, penalty kicks are included in the xG of 11.7. There have been 55 penalty kicks awarded in PL so far this season, and Brentford have been awarded 3 penalties.
Figure b. Shows the number of corners and expected goals from set pieces (xGSP). Data is taken from totalcorner og xgscore.
According to the statistic Brentford scores fourth highest on xG from set pieces. However, Brentford have only 98 corners, low when comparing to most teams in Premier League. This indicates that Brentford are utilizing their corners to create more scoring chances than teams with similar corner numbers (West Ham, Newcastle Everton, Palace and Luton). They also create more goal-scoring chances than many of the teams that have more corners (Tottenham, Bournemouth, Manchester United. Brentford create more goal scoring chances from set pieces than for example Manchester City, despite Manchester City having 141, i.e. 43 more corners. Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have a higher total xG on set pieces than Brentford. Chelsea(107), Liverpool(138) and Arsenal(162!) corners. So Arsenal have had 64 more than Brentford. If you think about xG per corner, you could argue that Brentford is the league’s best team at corners!
Figur c. Goals per 100 corner from PL 2022/23. Taken from The Athletic(with data from opta).
The stats from The Athletic show goals per corner from last season. Last season Brentford scored 5.6 goals per 100 set piece. Brentford numbers seems consitent over time, and this numbers are without their main man Ivant Toney. The so-far-answer to the question from the beginning, must be that Brentford is one of the league’s very best at offensive set pieces. So let’s dig into their approach to these set pieces. I’ve done a ‘snapshot’ analysis of their set-pieces in the match against Nottingham Forest, and limited myself to attacking free-kicks and corners. Brentford created 1.13 (xG) on these situations in this match(Understat). In total Brentford created 1.94 xG in this match. Free kicks and corners accounted for 58% of this. Below is an overview of Brentford’s strategy on their offensive corners and free kicks against Forest.
12 min Freekick Mathias Jensen
Figure 1: Nottingham set a high line. Brentford have two men offside before the ball goes. The rest of Brentford’s players are gathered at the far end of Forest’s horizontal defensive line (except Røerslev on the right).
Figure 2: Toney and Maupay position themselves in an offside position before the free kick is taken.
Figure 3: The free kick is taken towards the far post, towards Pinnock, Mee and Collins. Forest begin to drop their defence line as the ball goes.
Figure 4: Mee wins in the air and heads the ball in centrally. Toney and Maupay are now onside and heading into the space behind.
Figure 5: Mee’s header is too short and Forest get the clearance.
19 min - direct free kick Ivan Toney
Figure 6. Forest have set up a wall with a man lying behind the wall.
Figure 7. Ivan Toney grabs the ball after Forest’s wall has been set.
Figure 8. Toney moves the ball 20-30 cm to the side from where it was originally located. Toney shoots the ball in the nearest corner, around the wall.
Summary of strategy: Toney succeeds at the first attempt in his comeback! Brentford put two men behind the wall to disrupt the goalkeeper’s view. This helps reduce the time the goalkeeper has to react if Toney chooses the far corner. After Forest has set the wall, Toney moves the ball 20-30 cm to the side. That was enough to shoot the ball around the wall and into the shortest corner. A cheeky and successful move by Toney and Brentford. The shot is set at 0.11 xG (Understat)
24min - Corner from left (Mathias Jensen)
Figure 9. Brentford set up a man offering a short solution at the corner flag, and a man down at byline, and one just outside 16m (Lewis Potter). Brentford put 5 men close to the penalty spot. Forest have 3 men in zone marking. Two men following Brentford’s two short options, and the rest man-marking. Note that Forest don’t have anyone on the edge of the 16m.
Figure 10. Five Brentford players in the box are almost on a horizontal line before the corner is taken. Forest man-mark four of them, Maupay is free.
Figure 11. Brentford decide to play the corner short to Damsgaard. Forest react with Hudson-Odoi coming under pressure. On the edge of the 16m, a Forest player (Danilo) has started to move out towards the 16m (therefore Maupay is completely free with no man-marking).
Figure 12. Brentford pass the ball to Røerslev who has no man on him. Hudson-Odoi has to go from pressurising Damsgaard to changing direction and pressurising Røerslev, so he is far away and behind in the pressure. He’s given plenty of space to put it in. The cross is too long and goes in to the keeper.
Summary of strategy: Brentford take advantage from a superioririty at the corner flag to hit a cross from a good position with no pressure from the opposition. Brentford have three additional players available for the short corner, Forest counter-defend with only two. The result is an advantage and a free man(Roerslev) with time to cross from a good position with no pressure. Based on this analysis from Yuki ShirozuDefence of corners, this could be a risk Forest are willing to take in order to prioritise being stronger in the box. This time Brentford squandered the opportunity with a poor cross. But the routine still gave them a great place to cross from.
31 min Corner from left (Mathias Jensen)
Figure 13. Forest has the same setup. Two men out, three in zonal marking and the rest man-marking. Brentford do almost the same, with one change. Two men (Lewis-Potter and Janelt) are tight around the goalkeeper.
Figure 14. Lewis-Potter interferes with the goalkeeper as the corner goes in. Worth noting is the blocking move with Mee and Toney.
Figure 15. Toney starts at the far left, in close combat with his marker. Mee(16) is right behind him.
Figure 16. Mee blocks Toney’s marker just as Toney turns round. Toney is free from his marker. You can see Mee(16) is in the way of Toney’s marker and are blocking two, which giving Toney space to run.
Figure 17. Toney is completely free and can run towards the ball at the back post. Janelt also prevents the defender closest to the goalkeeper from running towards the ball at the back post.
Figure 18. Toney is completely free to receive the ball at the back post.
Figure 19. Here Toney has knocked the ball in on the first touch. Janelt and Lewis-Potter ready in the box to finish.
Figure 20. After a scramble in the box, the ball falls to Lewis-Potter (who started by marking the goalkeeper) who shoots into the crossbar.
Summary of strategy Brentford’s set-up is similar to the previous corner. It’s obvious that the aim of this strategy is to get a free player at the back post to get the ball back into the box and create a great scoring chance. The blocking move from Ben Mee is executed with good timing to allow Toney to run free. The cross from Toney is well taken and Brentford create a great opportunity. Both of the players (Lewis-Potter and Janelt) who started by the goalkeeper are the ones who get the ball and finish the attack.
58 min - corner from left(Mathias Jensen)
Figure 21. Brentford have again put a man on the byline. Two men offside at the 16, the rest in the box between the penalty area and 16m.
Figure 22. In addition to the zone, Forest have man marking on Brentford’s players in the box. Mee(16) is marked by Montiel.
Figure 23. Mee pushes Montiel as he takes a few steps towards the back post, bringing him closer to Pinnock.
Figure 24. Mee breaks away from his marker. Pinnock makes himself big and stops Montiel. Mee is free to run.
Figure 25. Pinnock holds up three defenders. Mee’s marker (Montiel) has to run round Pinnock and is trailing. Forest’s zone player (number 5, Mangala) chooses to mark Pinnock rather than Mee. Mee is free and can run towards the ball at the near post.
Figure 26. Mee gets in front of the zone marker on the first post and wins the duel. We also see that Maupay is ready to receive the ball if it goes past Mee.
Summary of strategy This time Brentford succeeds! Again there is co-operation between the players in the box, and this time it is Pinnock who helps prevent the opposition from marking Ben Mee, allowing Mee to easily head in the equaliser. Pinnock was instrumental in stopping Mee’s marker (Montiel). Mee is one of Brentford’s best players in the air. Smart of Brentford to try to set Mee up to head freely in the box.He wins about 60% of duels fbref. In addition to Mee, Maupay was also free at the near post, which could have been dangerous if the ball went lower (see Figure 26).
Summary
The numbers for the season so far shows clearly that Brentford are one of the league’s best teams at set pieces. They create almost as many goal-scoring chances from set-pieces, despite having far fewer corners. It’s fascinating to see Brentford’s strategies with the different variants. Just looking at one match we saw both short corners and corners at front and back posts. Brentford had a lot of variation, even within the same setup. This makes Brentford unpredictable and difficult to defend against. With Ivan Toney also back with a cheeky free kick variation, it can help Brentford improve in the final stages this season. It will be exciting to follow Brentford going forward. It’s clear that their variations are both well thought-out and well-rehearsed. It will be interesting to see if they can continue to create as much from set pieces for the rest of the season. If so, it could be a very exciting spring season!
Sources: (Yuki Shirozu.
| [(Understat, Brentford 3 - 2 Nottingham Forest (January 20 2024) | EPL | 2023/2024 | xG)](https://understat.com/match/22104/) |
[The Athletic]((https://theathletic.com/5116257/2023/12/19/set-pieces-relegation-battle-importance/)
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