Opinion: Who Should Take Set Pieces?

The modern game of football is vastly different from when my Dad used to watch it growing up. For a start, the games were all played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon and often only televised for Match of the Day. But what I’m getting at, is that the style of play is different. The tackling isn’t as rash, and players make more of a fuss of little knocks than I have ever seen before. Due to this, it has meant that more free kicks are being taken.

As we have seen in the Euro’s, one player is expected per team to take the free kicks. Bale for Wales and Ronaldo for Portugal are obvious examples. No matter where the ball is in and around the penalty area, they will take the dead ball. But surely one player can’t be called upon in every situation. Dier for England scored a great free kick because he was suited to shooting from that distance and from that angle. If it had been at a tighter angle, would he have scored? Probably not.

Also, unless that player is two footed, then you need a left footed free kick specialist and a right footed free kick specialist. This means that you can get the curl on the ball no matter where the free kick is being taken from and more often that not in will be on target.

The reason that I bring this up is because after Caddis scored his free kick against Walsall, I have heard people say that he should be our free kick taker over Cotterill. Why do we have to have just one free kick taker? Yes Caddis could take them if they’re closer to the penalty box and therefore bury them into the bottom corner. But Cotterill has a high success rate of free kicks and can generate more bend and power than Caddis. So surely he is better to take them if they’re further out.

To mix it up further, Viv could take dead balls from out wide if we were to get a free kick near the throw-in line. He has a great deliver and trajectory on his crossing and his heading isn’t ideal so this would mean that he is not missed inside the box. So technically now I have 3 free kick takers as my ideal dead ball specialists.

We need to get over the mind set that we need one player who can do everything. We are a team and you have to play to the strengths of that team. Caddis is quite good at heading the ball so you don’t want him crossing the ball in when you’d rather him be on the end of the crosses.