England head coach Thomas Tuchelplaceholder image
England head coach Thomas Tuchel | AFP via Getty Images
Do England rely too much on set pieces? Perhaps - but their dead balls are a strength which only makes them more likely to win the World Cup.
In the wake of England’s 4-2 victory over Croatia, opposing manager Zlatko Dalić bemoaned his side’s failure to deal with set piece routines – as he saw it, England’s most potent weapon.
“We knew that the set-pieces were the greatest danger,” the 59-year-old told the media, adding that England were “the strongest” side in the tournament from dead ball situations. His assessment appeared to be proven right by Harry Kane, who scored from both a penalty and a corner in the first half, while Dominic Livaković was forced into several fine saves from set plays as the game wore on.
Dalić’s frustration at his side’s “disastrous” failure to deal with England’s set pieces was a complement to their expertise in such situations, but also played into an increasingly common criticism of Thomas Tuchel’s side – that they are too reliant on set plays to score goals. It’s not an entirely unfounded idea. The question is whether or not it matters.
Are England too reliant on set pieces?
Harry Kane scored England's second goal against Croatia from Declan Rice's cornerplaceholder image
Harry Kane scored England's second goal against Croatia from Declan Rice's corner | Getty Images
Since Tuchel became head coach in January 2025, England have scored 35 goals in all competitions. 13 of them have come from dead ball situations – 37.1% of the total, including penalties.
That’s quite a lot more than most international teams. Just three of France’s 19 competitive goals in the same timeframe came from set pieces, for example, and the percentage of England’s goals which come from such situations is almost exactly the same as that of Arsenal in the Premier League, another team who have been sneeringly described as ‘set piece merchants.’
Arsenal, of course, won the title and reached the final of the Champions League. Plainly, it’s possible to succeed while leaning somewhat heavily on free-kicks and corners, and Tuchel doesn’t seem to be too sniffy about the means by which his team gets on the scoresheet.
When asked about his use of specialist coaches shortly before the World Cup, he acknowledged that England “want to be a strong set piece team” and has taken plety of steps towards making sure that’s the case. Arsenal proved that domination from dead balls can win trophies – and given that England happen to have their best set piece taker, Declan Rice, in the squad, it makes perfect sense for the Three Lions to take a leaf or two out of the Gunners’ book.
Much like Arsenal, England often use players who aren’t the target of set plays to block defenders and force them out of the way, creating space for the player whose head is being aimed for. Nicolas Jover’s fingerprints are all over the Three Lions’ approach to dead balls. It’s a physical and pragmatic approach which has paid dividends, and which earned them their second goal against Croatia.
It may not be the prettiest way to win football matches, but it’s clearly working and Tuchel’s remit is to win the World Cup rather than to please the purists - but there is still a reasonable concern that England’s reliance on set plays has been a little too excessive over the last 18 months.
Set pieces are a strength – but England have struggled from open play
Jude Bellingham during the frustrating warm-up match against New Zealandplaceholder image
Jude Bellingham during the frustrating warm-up match against New Zealand | Getty Images
While England scoring a high volume of goals from set pieces is obviously a positive, it does also serve to highlight the fact that they haven’t been quite as incisive from open play as they would probably like. England’s growing reputation as dead ball specialists is arguably a function of their failures to score as frequently as might be hoped in other situations.
England’s 22 open play goals under Tuchel have come at a rate of 1.47 per match, which would be very high indeed in the Premier League but is nonetheless a little underwhelming compared to other international teams of similar stature. After all, plenty of the countries teams like England face are considerably weaker on paper - the statistical sample includes two games each against the likes of Latvia, Andorra and Albania.
England can’t be described as a remarkably efficient goalscoring team under Tuchel, either. The 35 goals they’ve scored since he took charge have come from chances worth a total of 35.6xG – given that Harry Kane is in the side, it’s rather surprising to see that England’s finishing as a whole has been slightly worse than average.
It would be a stretch to say that any of the statistics behind England’s attacking player are damning, but neither are they especially impressive, and they do give cause to wonder whether England have the creativity and firepower necessary against any elite team which is able to shut them down at set pieces.
It’s a hypothetical scenario as it stands, given that England have been consistently lethal in dead ball situations since Tuchel took over, but perhaps they will eventually run into a team who are stronger, taller, or simply better drilled in their own penalty area. Perhaps they’ll be forced to lean more heavily on their work in the open field as the World Cup wears on – and that’s a scenario which might demand some improvements.
Not that anything will be asked of England that hasn’t been asked of every side to lift football’s greatest trophy. The win over Croatia was enjoyable and uplifting but also imperfect, and Tuchel’s team will have to grow over the course of the coming weeks if they want to end their long wait for a World Cup – but at least set pieces are one thing they’ve got down to a fine art already. Perhaps they’ll be an edge that helps England go all the way.
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