Tottenham’s set-piece success has flipped, but no one is talking about it

Alasdair Gold points out that Tottenham Hotspur have been among the best in the Premier League when it comes to both attacking and defending set-pieces this season, and he claims that two men, in particular, are responsible for the side’s improvement.

Tottenham have overcome their set-piece woes

If you cast your mind to the back season last season, you will recall that Ange Postecoglou was coming under immense criticism for the way Tottenham defended corner-kicks.

The Australian arguably made the controversy even bigger by insisting that he did not see it as a major problem. In fact, Postecoglou made it clear that he would not spend too much time on the training pitch working on defending set-pieces.

However, contrary to his statement to the media, it is an issue that Spurs have worked on this season. Moreso, the numbers suggest that there has been a stark improvement.

Two men responsible for Spurs’ improvements in set-pieces

Football.London’s Alasdair Gold points out that Tottenham’s opening goal against Brentford on Sunday was the eighth time that they have scored from a set-piece this season. That is just two fewer than Arsenal, who have been lauded for their set-piece conversion rate.

The journalist also reveals that Spurs have only conceded six goals from set-pieces across the Premier League season so far, which is fewer than both Arsenal and Bournemouth.

Gold asserts that this improvement is primarily down to the work that has gone into set pieces at the Hotspur Way training pitches.

He explains that assistant coaches, Nick Montgomery and Mile Jedinak, have been working closely together this season on both attacking and defending set-pieces, with the work now bearing fruit for the side.

Why Tottenham’s set-piece defending will improve even further

In the article, Gold also points out that Spurs have this impressive record on set-pieces despite missing some of their most aerial dominant players due to injury for much of the season.

That is a pertinent point as one would imagine that they would only get better at corners and indirect free-kicks once they have the likes of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven back.

It will be interesting to see how Guglielmo Vicario copes with handling set-pieces, which has been identified as a weakness in the Italian, with Antonin Kinsky now breathing down his neck.

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