Leicester City have struggled with enough aspects of the game this season that their concerning set-piece record has gone under the radar.
The underlying numbers are really not good. So far, City have conceded the most shots from opposition set-pieces (92) and the highest expected goals figure (9.86) too, the team perhaps fortunate, and thankful for Mads Hermansen, that they’ve only conceded five goals from them.
It’s not much better in attack. Only Southampton have mustered fewer shots from their own corners and free-kicks, but it’s City who have the lowest expected goals (3.04). They have managed to score four goals from dead-ball situations, and so are slightly overachieving at the moment.
In the 2021-22 season, City were a good team who just couldn’t defend corners and free-kicks. They were so poor that their own fans were ironically cheering when they managed when one didn’t end up in the back of their own net. It cost them a place in the Europa Conference League final, and if they’d had even an average Premier League record, they’d have risen enough places in the table to qualify for Europe again.
Really, City haven’t improved all that much since then. They were marginally better the year they were relegated, with newly-appointed set-piece coach Lars Knudsen making a slight impact. But, there were too many other problems to truly notice.
Last season, City were so dominant for much of the year that it didn’t matter that they weren’t great at set-pieces. But for the amount of corners they had, they weren’t much of a threat, and for the low number they conceded, they gave up a fair amount of opportunities.
Despite the appointment of Norwich’s set-piece expert Andrew Hughes in the summer, the underlying numbers say City are still finding it difficult. It was part of their undoing at Newcastle.
The Magpies’ first goal was from a short corner, one that was worked too cleverly for City to cope with. The second was from a free-kick, where City’s marking was woeful.
With that in mind, it’s been a focus for manager Ruud van Nistelrooy and his players this week. He said: “If you look at the goals we conceded, there were three from set-pieces, from a short corner and a free-kick from the side, and a throw-in where we weren’t aware and alert enough. That’s costing you the game.
“We had some good meetings, especially on what cost us the game at Newcastle. Set-pieces was a big part of that, evaluating the phases of the set-pieces and where there is the intention to improve. So we looked at that and also transferred it to the training pitch. I’m expecting to see improvements there.”
If van Nistelrooy did manage to get to the bottom of the problem, he would be the first manager in a while to do so. But there’s so many other issues to deal with in City’s battle against the drop that they won’t be able to dedicate time to it every week.
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