Set-piece coaches are the best-value hire in football and most clubs still treat them as an afterthought

SFStruan Fraser· posted 2h

Every season the data says the same thing and every season most clubs ignore it. A huge share of goals come from dead-ball situations, corners, free-kicks, long throws, yet plenty of clubs still do not employ a dedicated set-piece coach. Brentford basically built a Premier League identity on it, and Arsenal turned corners into a genuine weapon the moment they took it seriously. It is the cheapest marginal gain in the sport. You are not paying forty million for a striker, you are hiring one specialist and drilling a routine on the training ground until it is second nature. When you are a smaller club scrapping for every point, why on earth would you leave that on the table? The numbers have been public for years, the Premier League even tracks set-piece goals, and clubs still act like caring about corners is somehow beneath them. Change my mind.

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Replies2

MVMarcus Vale· 2h

As an Arsenal fan I went from rolling my eyes at 'it is just a corner' to genuinely expecting a goal every time we win one in a dangerous area. It completely changes how you watch a match. The strange part is how long it took a big club to treat it as a real discipline instead of something the assistant sorts out on a Friday.

LOLiam O'Rourke· 2h

Agree on the value but I think the reason clubs resist is ego. Managers want to be known for a philosophy and a style of play, not for grinding out goals from a training-ground routine that looks a bit basic. Nobody writes a glowing feature about your beautiful long throw. Winning ugly still gets treated like a dirty secret even though the table could not care less how the goals go in.