Man Utd have improved their attacking set-piece output dramatically in recent weeks
Manchester United have found a new love for set piece, at least in the attacking sense.
The last six United goals have come from Bruno Fernandes’ set pieces, winning the side a crucial six points in a time where they sit perilously in 14 th in the Premier League.
With United’s attackers struggling for form in front of goal, is this reliance on set pieces a conscious decision from Ruben Amorim and his coaches, or more of a stroke of luck?
The rise of the set piece coach has been one of the more interesting trends to come out of this Premier League season. It is now common to see a teams set piece coach join the manager in the technical area when a corner or free kick is being taken, most notably at Arsenal and Aston Villa.
United’s two set piece coaches are assistant Carlos Fernandes and former Arsenal coach Andreas Georgson, who joined the club in the summer. Amorim was full of praise for his two coaches after the Ipswich victory, where set plays were apart of all three United goals.
“You talk about Carlos changing with Andreas. We are in the same team and today they win the game for us. So the credit for them,” he said in his post-match press conference.”
This infers that United’s recent shift to set piece reliance in the final third has been a change made by the coaching staff at United. Amorim has so far struggled to get anything going offensively at United during his time at the club, so it should come as no surprise that he has resorted to experiment with set plays to get results.
Having seemingly improved on attacking set plays, United’s coaches next priority should be improving the side defending of corners and free kicks. The side have conceded the third most goals from set pieces in the Premier League this season, only bottom Southampton and strugglers Wolves have a worse record.
The squad’s deficiencies when defending corners highlighted against Everton. United’s defenders had several opportunities to clear the ball from a Jack Harrison corner, only for the ball to be turned in by Beto for the opening goal at Goodison Park. Mistakes like that have to be cut out before Amorim can even dream of transforming United into a top side.
It seems that Ruben Amorim could look to make set pieces a fruitful source of goals for the rest of the season, and beyond.