A new football season in Germany is about to get fully underway and I thought it would be an opportune time to highlight all the Bundesliga set piece takers tasked with making a difference for their teams in this aspect of the game.
Related: Set Piece Takers for the Premier League
Here’s a table below which breaks down the expected penalty, free kick and corner kick takers based on things like match footage from last season, statistics, as well as the odd pre-season friendly and a bit of personal instinct.
Bundesliga competition set piece takers list
| Club | Penalties (Main) | Penalties (Alternate) | Free Kicks (Main) | Free Kicks (Alternate 1) | Free Kicks (Alternate 2) | Corners (Main) | Corners (Alternate 1) | Corners (Alternate 2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayer Leverkusen | Lucas Alario | Lars Bender | Demirbay | Amiri | - | Demirbay | Amiri | - |
| Hoffenheim | Kramaric | Munas Dabbur | Skov | Kramaric | - | Geiger | Skov | - |
| Mainz 05 | Brosinski | Quaison | Brosinski | - | - | Brosinski | - | - |
| Union Berlin | Max Kruse | Ingvartsen | Andrich | - | - | Trimmel | - | - |
| Eintracht Frankfurt | Kostic | Rafael Santos Borré | Kostic | Aymen Barkok | Kamada | Kostic | Aymen Barkok | Kamada |
| Hertha Berlin | Lukebakio | TBC | Mittelstadt | Lukebakio | - | Plattenhardt | Mittelstadt | Lukebakio |
| SC Freiburg | Grifo | Petersen | Gunter | Grifo | - | Gunter | Schmid | - |
| Stuttgart | Nicolás González | Silas Katompa Mvumpa | TBC | - | - | TBC | - | - |
| Bayern Munich | Lewandowski | Muller | Kimmich | Lewandowski | Gnabry | Kimmich | Gnabry | Coman |
| VfL Bochum | Robert Zulj | Danny Blum | TBC | - | - | TBC | - | - |
| Wolfsburg | Weghorst | - | Maximilian Arnold | William | - | Maximilian Arnold | Mehmedi | Brekalo |
| Greuther Fürth | Branimir Hrgota | Julian Green | TBC | - | - | TBC | - | - |
| Borussia Moenchengladbach | Stindl | Bensebaini | Hofmann | Plea | Zakaria | Hofmann | Plea | Nehaus |
| Borussia Dortmund | Haaland | Reus | Reus | Guerreiro | Thorgan Hazard | Reus | Guerreiro | Thorgan Hazard |
| Arminia Bielefeld | Fabian Klos | - | TBC | - | - | TBC | - | - |
| Augsburg | Caligiuri | Finnbogason | Gregoritsch | Caligiuri | - | Richter | Vargas | Caligiuri |
| 1. FC Koln | Ondrej Duda | Sebastian Andersson | Kainz | - | Kainz | - | ||
| RB Leipzig | André Silva | Forsberg | Nkunku | Angelino | Halstenberg | Angelino | Nkunku | - |
Set piece takers from the Bundesliga’s newly promoted teams
Unlike other European leagues which see three teams rise up and another three demoted to a lower division, Bundesliga rules stipulate that only two teams can be relegated from the first division of German football in a single season.
So, let’s take a look at what the two promoted teams have to offer…
VfL Bochum
This team had a total of 5 penalties in the last domestic campaign and they managed to put away all of them.
Robert Zulj scored 3 times from the penalty spot, whilst Danny Blum and Silvère Ganvoula dispatched the last one.
So I’d realistically expect Zulj to retain primary penalty taking duties at least for the foreseeable future.
Greuther Fürth
Greuther Fürth were awarded a sum of 7 penalty kicks across the course of the 2. Bundesliga, with Swedish centre forward Branimir Hrgota scoring the most recent 4.
He has a 100% penalty taking record at the moment and I’d expect him to step up if an opportunity presents itself in the new season.
But as a backup option, either Julian Green or Paul Seguin can also step in when needed, although the latter missed his last attempt in a 3 – 2 loss against Karlsruher SC on the 8th of January 2021.
Which team scored the most set piece goals in the 2020-21 Bundesliga campaign?
Union Berlin recorded the most set piece goals in the Bundesliga last season with an impressive tally of 15, and they were followed closesly by Borussia Mönchengladbach, Dortmund and then and Andre Silva-led Eintracht Frankfurt – with 14, 13 and 13 each.
When it came to penalties, Borussia Mönchengladbach led the pack with a total of 10 scored.
So you can expect captain Lars Stindl to take the spot kicks once more provided that he is on the field when these situations presents themselves.
Final thoughts
I hope you found this post useful as I’m aware it’s a topic that comes with a lot of questions, along with the need to keep information up to date.
If you want to improve your own set piece skills, get yourself a football mannequin set to put in your backyard for practice!
