Decoding Serie A Set Pieces: From Delivery to Danger

Set pieces are an important part of the game in modern football, and given one of my references in this world is Ted Knutson and whatever he produces, sooner or later I knew I should try to do a piece of analysis on set pieces. Even more so when you think that set piece coaches get paid a lot and set pieces can be one of the many edges you can push to win games. So, I tried to produce a solid piece of analysis on Serie A set piece taking and usage for some reasons that I'll explain in a second.

First of all, I want to say that I've started doing some freelance work in this industry, so my time during the season will be reduced, and I've therefore decided to focus on fewer pieces but of much higher quality. Second of all, you'll probably need some attention and time to read this because it will be a little technical on some points, so read it when you think you'll be able to really digest it. Why? 1: I'd like to have some feedback, 2: I'd really like if you'd share this work with whoever you think might be interested, or simply on your socials if you find it worth your time. Thank you!

Why Set Pieces Matter

So, why am I writing about set pieces? First of all, to push myself into doing something actually valuable on a subject I don't typically appreciate much, and therefore creating new metrics, new visualizations that are maybe less beautiful but more useful if you're actually trying to understand what a team is trying to do with their set pieces.

But also because Juventus this season so far continues to struggle to create opportunities in open play, but is actually pretty good on set pieces therefore I’ve got this idea to explore the subject. Furthermore it's really difficult to find good data analysis on Serie A, much more so on set pieces.

The Top Performers: Juventus and Lazio Lead the Way

Juventus actually is the team that produced the most xG – for my model – in Serie A from freekicks that were crossed, and all types of corners in a 5-second window from them taking place, with 2.97, followed by Lazio at 2.4. That shows even in a basic scatter plot where we normalize things, as they are by far the two teams that produce the most xG per set play, even though they are average in the amount of set plays of that type per game.

The next question would be: what happens further than just producing shots and goals? Where, by the way, Cremonese leads the pack with 3 goals in Serie A from 0.33 xG, while Juventus and Lazio sit at 2 like Udinese, Parma and Inter.

Winning the First Contact

Well, we could focus on how many first contacts the teams actually win in Serie A. How do I define a first contact win? Glad you asked — they're either a first-time pass, shot, or reception from a player from the same team, which is simplistic, but you need to make decisions here as always when creating metrics. Also, this is applied only for freekicks and corners that end up in the box.

And as you can see below, those are the ten teams with the most set pieces per game into the box in Serie A, ordered by the percentage of first contacts won. Juventus is not there, but we find again Lazio and Parma — and Parma's particularly interesting here. You know who coaches Parma? Ex-Arsenal assistant manager Carlos Cuesta. Do you think that has something to do with it?

Targeting Height: Parma's Physical Approach

If we peel another layer here, we find that Parma amazingly decides to target their tallest players most of the time. How can we say that? Using the amount of first contacts won by players – which we have to recognize is a proxy as we're not capturing who contended the balls when the contact was lost – we see that Delprato (5), Pellegrino (5), Ndiaye (3) and Djuric (3) are leading the pack.

The smallest between these four is the captain, Delprato, at 1.83m per Transfermarkt, while the other three all surpass 1.90m comfortably.

What Happens After First Contact: Chaos vs. Direct Shooting

But as you could have thought, not every first contact won is equal. You could easily touch the ball and create nothing, so I thought: what percentage of each first ball is a shot, what percentage is used to create another layer of chaos with a pass or a reception and then a pass or cross, and what percentage is either a reception that's a failure or it's followed by a carry or take-on? So that we know which teams have somewhat complex choreographies on set pieces where they maybe move the ball a couple of times before trying to take a shot.

Well, Juventus, Lazio, Inter and Parma (you recognize their recurring names at this point) are all in the top 10 for most first contacts won in Serie A, and while Parma and Inter seem well balanced in their approach, Juventus just wants to shoot while Lazio is the team most interested in creating as much chaos and confusion as possible with their delivery.

The Best Set Piece Takers in Serie A

So then what happens? I thought it would be interesting to do two things: explore the takers and actually see where the set plays are delivered and who takes the shot. To do this, I've gone to watch how much danger set plays produce in a window of 5 seconds for the Atomic VAEP metric. I keep the highest value in that window and calculate the difference with the value at the point of the set play, and I use that to see which players have the highest median value for their delivery, considering only the players that took at least 10 set pieces.

As you'd expect, we find some players from the teams that actually are the best at creating shots from them, like Valeri from Parma, but also Nico Paz, who at this point I have to admit is clearly the best player in Serie A.

Spatial Analysis: Where Parma Delivers and Who Shoots

At this point I wanted to see where the ball is put and who takes the shot, so I've recycled one of my maps to see where the shots are generated from and who shoots. Again, all the shots that are taken in a window of 5 seconds from when the set piece has taken place. For this I won't use Juventus — instead, let's look at what Parma does and why they're not generating enough xG to be in the top ten for xG per set play, even though they are quite good when it comes to delivery and first contacts while being the third team with most corners and freekicks crossed in Serie A.

From the right side of the pitch, they put the focus on the far post very clearly, but they cannot create shots — 5 from 34 set pieces for a total of 0.17 xG.

On the other side of the pitch, they have a more varied delivery which is quite focused on the center of the box or the near post, where they have actually produced 6 shots from 38 set pieces, not much better than on the right side. But there they have created much better shots and netted a goal on the development of a corner with Cutrone – the big dot.

So we can see they have two very different ways of using set plays depending on the wing they are taken from.

Closing Thoughts: The Set Piece Edge

The beauty of set pieces is that they're one of the few truly controllable aspects of football — you can drill them, optimize them, and create genuine tactical advantages. The teams that treat them seriously, with dedicated coaches and complex choreographies, are the ones we see at the top of these metrics.

Before wrapping up, I want to give credit where it's due. This analysis was inspired by the work of people like Ted Knutson, obviously, but also some great pieces (1, 2) I've read on set piece analysis that pushed me to think differently about how to measure and visualize this aspect of the game.

And of course, if you found this valuable, sharing it would mean the world — the more engagement these pieces get, the more time I can justify spending on them. Let me know your thoughts, and if there are specific topics or teams you'd like me to tackle next.

Until next time!