[Albion] Our attacking and defending set-pieces

[The Tactician]

Some of you may be familiar with the Albion Analytics page of twitter. Myself and another colleague on the page have written up a piece analysing our set-pieces under Potter this season.

There's a few surprises, and lots of bits and pieces that I had not previously noticed. I'm sure, given the scrutiny of our dead balls this year (especially defensively), that this article will be of interest ahead of a very big game tonight.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, you can read the piece HERE:

https://albionanalytics1.medium.com...ing-brightons-dead-ball-dilemmas-41a675c8aaeb

Hope you enjoy, and am interested to hear the thoughts of others about how we approach set-pieces.

 

[Seasidesage]

Interesting read and kind of confirms my feelings on Ben White in particular. Good footballer and starting to show real quality but still a lot to learn in order to be a top class player. You would hope having a keeper of Sanchez's size and presence will enable to good headers of a ball to be able to step up a yard or so and perhaps be able to further restrict the quality of chance given to the opposition on corners especially. Almost every metric I see seems to suggest we are unlucky rather than poor and individual errors are costing us more than fundamental weakness in organisation.

We do need to start seeing these marginal gain and statistical advantages translate into goals and wins where it matter though...

 

[Hugo Rune]

Fantastic analysis. Really highlights Ben White’s lack of tutoring in defending set-pieces at Leeds; it’s like he missed the whole module on it (although we know by their stats it’s a subject not preached by their visionary).

At one end we are punished by the best set-piece teams for every slight mistake we make whilst at the other end, Webster is more inclined to break the cross bar than score.

With a bit more luck and a few less individual errors, Potter’s set-piece tactics could really help us climb the table in the second half of the season.

 

[blue-shifted]

Agree with the general thrust that the set up is solid, but errors are costing us.

Personally I think even more so in attack than defence. Dunk has finally got a couple recently, but the number of straight forward chances they've headed high into the stands this season has been very frustrating

 

[elwheelio]

Webster got 5 (I think) goals last year. Effectively replacing the ones Duffy got the year before. We need him to start scoring again.

 

[Machiavelli]

Some of you may be familiar with the Albion Analytics page of twitter. Myself and another colleague on the page have written up a piece analysing our set-pieces under Potter this season.

There's a few surprises, and lots of bits and pieces that I had not previously noticed. I'm sure, given the scrutiny of our dead balls this year (especially defensively), that this article will be of interest ahead of a very big game tonight.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, you can read the piece HERE:

https://albionanalytics1.medium.com...ing-brightons-dead-ball-dilemmas-41a675c8aaeb

Hope you enjoy, and am interested to hear the thoughts of others about how we approach set-pieces.

Thanks for this, precise, logical and thorough. On that last point, I wonder why you didn't analyse Burn to any greater depth. My view of our 4 'CBs' that tend to start is that Dunk and Webster are good in the air (Dunk is better of the two), and White and Burn (despite his height), not. So, yes, I'd noticed that White has won very few attacking or defensive headers from set pieces, and made mistakes at the back. To the extent that Burn has won attacking headers they've hit the top of his head, and not threatened the goal, using going out of play. He has won a fair few headed clearances, but wondered if you'd done any analysis on his defensive performance this season (I say this as someone who struggles to see why Burn starts so regularly, so this might just be my prejudices coming out).

 

[Machiavelli]

Webster got 5 (I think) goals last year. Effectively replacing the ones Duffy got the year before. We need him to start scoring again.

Three last year, and only two from the head (Arsenal away was with his feet). He certainly got one assist (Maupay vs Sheff Utd, away, from a quite deep free kick IIRC), but it may well have been more.
Agree that we could do with him planting a few in, starting tonight ideally. He has hit the goalframe a few times (four?), including against Fulham.

 

[elwheelio]

Three last year, and only two from the head (Arsenal away was with his feet). He certainly got one assist (Maupay vs Sheff Utd, away, from a quite deep free kick IIRC), but it may well have been more.
Agree that we could do with him planting a few in, starting tonight ideally. He has hit the goalframe a few times (four?), including against Fulham.

Good point. He's a big old unit. I would much fancy marking him from a corner.

 

[The Tactician]

Thanks for this, precise, logical and thorough. On that last point, I wonder why you didn't analyse Burn to any greater depth. My view of our 4 'CBs' that tend to start is that Dunk and Webster are good in the air (Dunk is better of the two), and White and Burn (despite his height), not. So, yes, I'd noticed that White has won very few attacking or defensive headers from set pieces, and made mistakes at the back. To the extent that Burn has won attacking headers they've hit the top of his head, and not threatened the goal, using going out of play. He has won a fair few headed clearances, but wondered if you'd done any analysis on his defensive performance this season (I say this as someone who struggles to see why Burn starts so regularly, so this might just be my prejudices coming out).

So you're absolutely right re Ben White; he doesn't compete for anywhere near as many aerial duals as our other centre backs. He offers a different skill set, and leaves that to the more proficient Dunk, Webster, and in fact - Burn.
[tweet]1349684457918361600[/tweet]
Attacking wise, last season Burn actually had a higher xG than Webster, and yet scored zero goals. That suggests that his heading quality has been sub-par, and needs to improve. Defensively however, he's consistently ranked very highly for aerial duals won and headed clearances. In essence, he good at using his height to get the ball away, less so at taking advantage in an attacking sense. This campaign, Burn has won 70% of aerial duels and averages 3.66 aerials won per game, so he's impressive with regard to both quantity and quality. Here's some numbers from last season as well:
[tweet]1288875176474681346[/tweet]
[tweet]1296473523758796802[/tweet]

Finally, I think Burn often is situated at the back post at set pieces - this could be because he excels in this position having played wide left centre back / left back, and is used to th ball coming across to the back post rather than being central, or even that due to his height, he obscures the view of other defenders/the goalkeeper - something that went against us away at West Ham this year.

 

[The Tactician]

Agree with the general thrust that the set up is solid, but errors are costing us.

Personally I think even more so in attack than defence. Dunk has finally got a couple recently, but the number of straight forward chances they've headed high into the stands this season has been very frustrating

Definitely agree with this. Fine margins, but if we can improve even slightly and take more chances from set pieces, that will have a huge positive impact. We certainly have the personnel.

 

[Machiavelli]

Excellent work: thanking you kindly