EFL Championship Set Piece Takers

The second tier of English football is widely regarded as one of the toughest divisions to play in due to the fiercely competitive nature of the battle for promotion spots.

Because one of the world’s most difficult divisions kicks off today and we thought it would be a good time to update this post.

The three teams relegated from the English Premier League last season (i.e. Southampton, Leeds United and Leicester City will all be looking to bounce back with a direct promotion back to the top flight.

But such a feat won’t be easy by any stretch, as the likes of Watford, Norwich City and Middlesbrough will all be gunning promotion as well.

Anyway, enough with the chit chat.

Let’s dissect the EFL Championship set piece takers for the coming season.

It took a lot of research and many hours watching match footage in order to compile this information, so hopefully you find it very useful.

On a totally separate note, if you haven’t already, take a look at our updated set piece list for the Premier League.

Now with all that said, let’s get down to business…

Focus #1 – Set piece takers of teams relegated from Premier League

First up, we’re going to look at the teams that recently dropped down to the Championship from the Premier League.

Southampton

With James Ward-Prowse still at The Saints, we expect him to monopolise all of the direct and indirect free kicks, as well as all the corners and penalties.

Che Adams should deputise for Ward-Prowse when it comes to penalties, with Romain Perraud capable of taking some set pieces in the latter’s absence.

Leeds United

Patrick Bamford should be on spot kicks here, as Rodrigo Moreno has left the club to join Qatari side Al-Rayyan.

Other than that, we can only speculate who will take the free kicks and corners for them from pre-season games so far.

But my bet is going to be on Jack Harrison stepping up.

Leicester City

Many didn’t expect Leicester to find themselves playing in the Championship this year.

But here they are!

Jamie Vardy or Kelechi Iheanacho should be on penalties for now, with Patson Daka waiting in the wings.

Additionally, with James Maddison joining Tottenham Hostpur, Youri Tielemans leaving for Aston Villa and Harvey Barnes signing for Newcastle United, it seems as though Kiernan Dewsbury Hall is going to have to take up free kick and corner kick duty.

Focus #2 – Set piece takers of teams with an outside chance of promotion

Moving on, we’re going to look at some other teams who have a shot at getting promoted to the Premier League.

Watford

Now, here we have quite the conundrum.

Ismaïla Sarr and João Pedro were penalty takers for Watford in last season’s Championship campaign.

But both players have departed the club, joining Olympique Marseille and Brighton respectively.

Imran Louza took one penalty and scored last season, so maybe he’ll get the mantle on a full-time basis.

This is one situation to watch!

Middlesbrough

Chuba Akpom had a respectable penalty record last season, scoring from four of his six attempts (i.e. 66.7% conversion rate).

Marcus Forss should deputise from the spot in Akpom’s absence.

Free kick and corner kick takers will be updated after a few games.

Norwich City

Teemu Pukki has left the club for Major League Soccer team Minnesota United, so it remains to be seen who will be on penalty duty going into the new season.

Focus #3 – Set piece takers from the EFL Championship’s newly promoted teams

As always, attention is drawn to the newcomers.

I’ve drawn up a brief outline of what these guys have to offer:

Plymouth Argyle

Last season’s League one winners – with a monstrous 101 point tally – will be looking towards talisman Ryan Hardie to hit the back of the net from the penalty spot.

He scored four from four last season, which should see him take penalties going into the new campaign.

When it comes to free kicks and corners, we’ll update this post after a few league matches have been played.

Ipswich Town

Ipswich had a turbulent time from the penalty spot last season, as they had five different spot kick takers.

Take a look at these stats:

Centre forward Nathan Broadhead took the most of them, scoring two out of his three attempts.

He’s still at the club going into the new season, so we expect him to keep spot kick duty for now.

Free kick and corner kick takers will be updated in due course.

Sheffield Wednesday

The League One Playoff Final winners will look to Michael Smith for penalty conversion, as the Englishman successfully netted all 6 of his attempts in the last campaign.

We’ll update this post when more information about their corner kick and free kick takers become available.

Complete EFL Championship competition set piece takers list

Which team scored the most set piece goals in the 2022-23 EFL Championship season?

Milwall recorded the most goals of off free kick and corner situations in the Championship last season with a massive haul of 24, followed by Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion who managed 22 and 18 set piece goals respectively.

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Samuel Waihenya

CEO & Digital Publisher at Cosy Content Limited

Samuel Waihenya is 27 years of age and has been watching, discussing, as well as playing soccer for well over 10 years.

With a solid educational background in business management, the Soccer Whizz website is his first foray into the digital web space and it has been created with the intention of providing the absolute best soccer content for its readership.

Have a read through Samuel Waihenya's author bio page here.

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