Goals win games.
And at the bottom end of the table, goals can save you.
Set pieces are a way creating chances in a rehearsed, deliberate manner which, if coached
and practised properly, should yield scoring opportunities.
Come the end of the season, that extra scoring opportunity and ability could be the difference
between safety and relegation.
Unsurprisingly, struggling teams have created the fewest chances and scored the fewest goals.Ranked
by chances created, all of the bottom three clubs are in the lowest four for chances created.
Burnley, currently in twelfth, are outliers both because they have turned a better proportion
of those chances into goals than the other sides, and because they are defensively much
stronger.
But West Bromwich Albion, under Tony Pulis, are riding high in the table in eighth place,
despite creating a pretty paltry 205 chances.
Looking at chances created from set-plays, though, we can see that West Brom have created
a lot of chances from set play situations.
West Brom’s 205 chances might be almost 50 lower than the league average, but when
it comes to free-kicks and corners, they conjure chance after chance.
While Everton and Crystal Palace have created more chances from set plays in absolute terms,
47 and 46 respectively,
West Brom's 45 represents the largest proportion of a teams overall chances.
Almost 22% of West Brom’s total chances come from set-piece situations, with Crystal
Palace (20.35%) and Hull City (20.31%) next most proportionally.
The league average is 15.35%, with Manchester United (7.80%) and Arsenal (8.72%) creating
the lowest number of chances proportionally from set-pieces.
Of course, chance creation is one thing; actually putting the ball in the back of the net is
something else.
This is where West Brom excel, both absolutely and relatively.
West Brom have 12 assists from set-pieces, which includes both direct headers from corners,
say, and goals that come from the immediate aftermath of a set-piece, perhaps a shot going
in from a flicked-on header.
This is a league high, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of total goals scored.
Fully one third of all West Brom’s goals have come directly or as an immediate result
of a set-play.If we look at the percentage of set-play chances that actually yield a
goal, then, West Brom are once again superbly efficient.
Only Bournemouth, who are joint second for assists for set-plays, approach West Brom-like
levels of ability to turn set play chances into set-play goals.
If this is compared to the percentage of goals coming from chances that are NOT the result
of set-plays, you can see that West Brom are 14 the in the league, with an unspectacular
15%; the table clearly favours sides who create from open play and are therefore not reliant
on, or do not focus on, set-plays.
West Brom in this regard are lower than strugglers Sunderland, and sides that could still be
sucked into the relegation struggle like Palace, Swansea, and Leicester City.
West Bromwich, then, have arrived at a means of optimising their method of attack and deriving
a greater efficiency from set-plays than from normal play.
This has resulted not just in a greater number of goals from set plays, but a greater efficiency
at converting chances from set-plays.
This, when compared to their ability to turn chances from open play into goals, shows that
they have focused on an area of strength, the dead ball delivery of Chris Brunt in particular,
and the heading ability of Salmon Rondon and Gareth McAuley.
Meanwhile, Pulis continues to confound expectations with West Brom and set-plays are part of the
way he’s turned a mediocre side into an top eight one.