There has never been a greater focus on set-pieces, but Everton’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has suggested he isn’t actually the biggest fan of them.
It pays to be strong on set-pieces.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is one of the best signings Everton have made in years, isn’t he?!
Not only does he have great final third output, but he's got the work-rate to boot 🔥
A custom graphic showing a statistic about Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
via Opta, March 17
Corners, free-kicks and even throw-ins are great opportunities to score – and some teams in the league have become particularly good in these scenarios.
The biggest example is Arsenal.
The Premier League leaders have carved out a reputation as being highly effective on corners, and no side has scored more goals from set-piece situations this season.
Everton are also strong having scored 10 so far this term, even if Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall isn’t actually the biggest set-piece advocate.
Dewsbury-Hall has fielded questions from fans via a Reddit forum, and someone asked about the current trend around set-pieces.
The question was:
What is your perspective on how set-piece centric the game has gotten over the past few seasons? Is there a frustration among players about the whole scrum going on in the six yard box every corner or does it just feel like adapting to the times? Would you like to see any rule changes to tweak this dynamic in the future?
Dewsbury-Hall responded: “Probably a bit of both, really. That’s just the way football is at the moment. Set-pieces are a massive part of the game. Teams are using tactics like that because long throws are big and it makes it hard to defend against. I think your football purists will probably look at it and think ‘that’s not very nice, you want a bit more ‘nice-on-the-eye’ football.
“But, you’ve seen teams this season that scored a lot of goals from it, so it’s hard to say it’s not an effective thing. I’m probably a bit more of a purist, so it’s not my favourite thing in the world, but if it’s going to get us goals, then I’m happy to do it.”
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Of course, recently, Everton tried the tactic of crowding the goalkeeper, applying pressure on Manchester United’s Senne Lammens. But it was unsuccessful.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall playing for Everton.
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Away from set-pieces, we’ve also seen Dewsbury-Hall hoofing the ball high into the sky on kick-offs.
This doesn’t really constitute the ‘nice-on-the-eye’ football Dewsbury-Hall talks about.
But again, it’s something different that has the potential to unsettle a defence.
Teams can be so stubborn defensively these days, so it’s about finding new ways to score goals.
With Everton not being the most creative outfit, it makes sense to look into new methods, even if they aren’t pretty.
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