Who needs a set-piece coach? How Crystal Palace have taken over the dead-ball scene | OneFootball

“They’re probably one of the best in the league [at set-pieces]”, said an eventually victorious James McAtee this weekend.

Chris Richards had nodded in yet another dead-ball for the Eagles to put them 2-0 up, and despite the slight capitulation following, this was still something to cheer about. That goal took Palace to 15 set-piece goals this season (14 if you don’t want to include Joachim Andersen’s OG, like a nerd): 3 clear of set-piece kings Arsenal, 10 clear of champions-in-waiting Liverpool, and tied with long-haired hipster Austin MacPhee’s Aston Villa. What makes this even more impressive is that they’ve done this, as far as I can tell, without a set-piece coach. How’ve they managed that then?

Having watched all 15 goals back, as well as a smattering of extras, there is very little consistency between the plays from a routine point of view. The goals are a collection from all over the box, and don’t seem to follow a formula to the same extent Arsenal or even old Liverpool used to, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t tenets to the play.

The key seems to be players operating behind markers at all points, rather than sprinting in front to get a touch. This is generally allowing for powerful headers rather than flicks, and a mirror of Arsenal’s ideas of ‘forcing’ front-post markers away from the goal. Lacroix particularly is a gift from these moments, as we see below vs Fulham, as is Chalobah, vs Southampton.

All of this is platformed by the hulking mass of French phenom Jean-Phillipe Mateta sitting idly by the goalkeeper, as a blocking threat; for Richards’ goal at the weekend, Mateta is in fact pushed into Ederson by Dias, making his off-putting job even easier. I find it generally pretty neat that Palace don’t look to someone like Mateta as a ‘get your noggin on it’ guy, and instead make sure he’s in a place to capitalise on the ability of everyone else (Guéhi, for instance, is top tier at redirecting a ball across the face).

That leads us into the other core principle of Palace’s set-pieces: a hunger on the follow-up, and this is what consistently generates tap-ins for them.

Palace have a strong tendency to get first contact (we’ll see more later), and so having instinctual biters like Mateta (not like Luis Suarez) means you can maximise the chaos of the rebound: a lot of emphasis is placed on timings of late arrivals to aid this, particularly at the opposite post for the target delivery. This type of ideology is what gets you to a league-high 137 set-piece shots, despite playing a game less.

Pay particular attention to Mateta’s positioning, as on free-kicks he’s always wandering around the other side of the goal: nonchalant, hands in pockets and whistling I assume. His ability to sneak in on the right side of the last line is always a treat, and gives him his goals vs Everton and Utd. Even for Guéhi’s incredible volley vs Leicester, Muñoz is crashing at the far post in the same sort of way. Palace are safeguarding their first contacts, and improving their chance quality too.

This may seem like a Palace-focused piece, and it is Palace fans don’t worry, but the ramifications are league-wide, because this set-piece proficiency has fundamentally defined Palace’s form uptick, and should be heralded.

Of their 15 goals, 12 have changed the state of the game (i.e. loss to draw, or draw to win). Only 3 have maintained the status quo, and all were to put Palace 2-0 up: vs relegated whipping boys Southampton and Leicester, and last weekend vs City. Set-pieces aren’t simply a nice sprinkling on top for Glasner, they’re fundamental to how Palace play, and have been since the Austrian first arrived at Selhurst. Palace only scored 5 set-piece goals last season, but 4 of them arrived after his appointment in February.

The improvement and growth in emphasis were slightly predictable too – mainly because I did slightly predict them, back in August. Glasner’s Frankfurt were always a side that lived excitably in both boxes from set-pieces, and Palace also performed desperately under their xG in these situations last season. If you up the focus, and up the luck, you tend to up your payouts.

At first glance, 12th place and 15 set-piece goals may seem unremarkable. But in maybe the strongest Premier League there’s ever been, and with a host of teams flexing their financial muscles to get specific coaches in, Crystal Palace are a triumph of intelligent tactics. Closer to the UCL than relegation, and it could get even better.