With new football seasons across Europe’s top 5 domestic leagues about to get underway, I thought it would be good to cast an eye towards the specialists who will be responsible for dead ball attacking output throughout the campaign.
Penalty practice sessions and football mannequins will have been utilised to the point of exhaustion during pre season, so it’s going to be very exciting to find out which teams will benefit the most from these aspects of training.
Using information such as events gathered from matches played last season, statistics, pre-season games as well as current and expected roles at teams, I’ve put together a well researched list of players who take free kicks, corners and penalties for the teams competing in the world’s most watched football league.
Here it is…
Premier League 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester United | Cristiano Ronaldo | Bruno Fernandes | Cristiano Ronaldo | Bruno Fernandes | Rashford | Luke Shaw | Bruno Fernandes | Alex Telles |
| Manchester City | De Bruyne | Gundogan | De Bruyne | Mahrez | Gundogan | De Bruyne | Foden | Mahrez |
| Leeds United | Bamford | Klich | Raphinha | Phillips | Rodrigo | Phillips | Dallas | Raphinha |
| Brentford | Toney | Da Silva | Jensen | Toney | Mbuemo | Jensen | Mbuemo | Janelt |
| Brighton | Groß | Welbeck | Groß | Trossard | Dunk | Groß | Trossard | Mac Allister |
| Watford | Deeney | João Pedro | Cleverley | Chalobah | Masina | Cleverley | Sema | Zinckernagel |
| Norwich City | Pukki | Hugill | Dowell | Rashica | - | Dowell | Placheta | McLean |
| Aston Villa | El Ghazi | Danny Ings | Bertrand Traore | El Ghazi | Buendia | El Ghazi | Buendia | Bertrand Traore |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Kane | Son | Kane | Son | Dier | Son | Lo Celso | Lamela |
| Leicester City | Vardy | Maddison | Maddison | Tielemans | Perez | Tielemans | Maddison | Albrighton |
| Burnley | Wood | Barnes | Brownhill | Gudmundsson | McNeil | Westwood | McNeil | Gudmundsson |
| Crystal Palace | Milivojevic | Zaha | Milivojevic | Eze | Townsend | Eze | Milivojevic | Townsend |
| Chelsea | Jorginho | Mount | Mount | Alonso | Havertz | Mount | James | Chilwell |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | Jimenez | Neves | Neves | Moutinho | Neto | Moutinho | Neto | Neves |
| Newcastle United | Callum Wilson | Ritchie | Shelvey | Schar | Jacob Murphy | Ritchie | Fraser | Shelvey |
| Everton | Dominic Calvert Lewin | Richarlison | Digne | James Rodríguez | TBC | James Rodriguez | Digne | TBC |
| West Ham United | Noble | Antonio | Cresswell | Rice | Benrahma | Cresswell | Bowen | Yarmolenko |
| Liverpool | Milner | Salah | Trent Alexander Arnold | Salah | Van Dijk | Robertson | Trent Alexander Arnold | Thiago Alcantara |
| Southampton | Ward Prowse | Adam Armstrong | Ward Prowse | Adam Armstrong | Redmond | Ward Prowse | Redmond | |
| Arsenal | Aubameyang | Lacazette | Xhaka | Lacazette | Martin Ødegaard | Martin Ødegaard | Saka | Pepe |
Set piece takers from the Premier League’s newly promoted teams
From the table above I’m sure you can see three new team additions.
This is because last seasons bottom three teams were relegated to the league below – the EFL Championship.
Coming in their place were the three promoted teams from the aforementioned league, who I’ll now talk a bit about in turn…
Brentford
Ivan Toney put the ball in the back of the net 33 times in 52 appearances last campaign, which was quite a remarkable feat for the club’s top goalscorer.
He will undoubtedly be on penalty duty for Brentford as he’s got a very impressive career record so far, with only 1 penalty missed in 17 attempts.
In the last Championship campaign he managed to score all of his 11 awarded spot kicks.
Free kick duty will largely be split between himself, Mathias Jensen and Bryan Mbeumo.
And when it comes to corner kicks, Jensen, Mbuemo and Vitaly Janelt will be entrusted with whipping in quality deliveries.
Watford
Captain Troy Deeney is still expected to be the primary penalty taker when on the field.
But in his absence, either of João Pedro or Ismaila Sarr are likely to step up in the 33 year old veteran’s place.
Direct free kicks should be handled by the quartet of Tom Cleverley, Nathaniel Chalobah, Adam Masina and Ken Sema.
And when it comes to corners, look out for Cleverley and Sema once more, although Will Hughes and Philip Zinckernagel can be expected to step up here on the odd occasion.
Norwich City
The Canaries will rely on Teemu Pukki once again when it comes to penalty kicks, with Jordan Hugill as his backup in this department.
The loss of Emi Buendía to Aston Villa sees Kieran Dowell take charge of direct free kicks, as well as being first choice for corners.
Which team scored the most set piece goals in the 2020-21 Premier League season?
I’m fairly sure that a lot of you reading this article will be curious to know which team registered the most set piece goals in the last season.
Quite unexpectedly, West Ham top the charts here with 16 set piece goals, followed closely by Southampton, Everton, Manchester City and Liverpool with 15, 14, 13, and 12 respectively.
And when it came to penalties, Manchester United converted the most with 10 goals; a tally that Leicester City also managed to match.
