‘Foot on line,’ stay high and leave space for the big man – the Ralph Hasenhuttl guide to set-pieces

Southampton’s approach to set pieces is emblematic of their attitude to football.

It can be enchantingly risqué, mostly fearless and occasionally, head scratching. It nearly always treads along the precipice between genius and madness.

On the whole, Hasenhuttl has demonstrated a conducive method to the perceived madness. Aside from poor organisation at the weekend, where Lewis Dunk went without challenge for Brighton’s first goal, data underlines how frugal Saints have proven to be when defending dead ball situations.

In the 29 games played, Southampton have conceded just four goals from set pieces. Only Fulham, Arsenal and Manchester City have yielded fewer.

They’ve also have had similar success at the other end of the pitch. Along with Manchester City, the 11 goals scored is the third highest in the league, with West Ham and Everton the two sides more productive.

Despite both facets of their game functioning relatively well, they share distinct differences in how they are approached. While their attitude to defending is one that’s founded upon a collective operation rather than personal responsibility to make a system work, offensive free-kicks and corners are the polar opposite.

Instead of a holistic structure to garner success, akin to when defending, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s attacking set piece playbook relies heavily on particular individuals to fashion and take chances.

It is understood Dave Watson, the first team assistant coach, is tasked with designing choreographed routines from dead ball situations. And though there are some cases that show there are occasional nuances to deliveries – take Stuart Armstrong’s goal against Arsenal – most of the time, each delivery has certain recurring patterns, depending on the set piece’s location.

Step 1: Defending deep set pieces

But first, let’s wet our fingers and brush through the first page of the Hasenhuttl playbook with Southampton’s rather striking modus operandi to defending deep set pieces.

In the hushed din of a COVID-19 football match, shouts from certain players are only amplified. Saints’ captain James Ward-Prowse, is usually stationed towards the front of the very high line (more on that later) due to the midfielder having the clearest sight to measure the path and trajectory of the incoming cross. He can then relay that information to subsequent team-mates.

Ward-Prowse’s role at the front of the pack necessitates him to keep the rest of those in red and white as high as possible and in a correlating, undeviating line. Here against Chelsea, Ward-Prowse can be heard shouting “right foot on line, boys!” The side-on positioning of the seven players behind him remains unmoved throughout the whole sequence, one of the more zany ploys in the Hasenhuttl manual.

With teams recognising Saints’ lack of movement, there have been various plans in how best exploit the perceived weakness. In the case below, Chelsea elected to overload the back post and start a yard in front of Southampton’s defenders. This is to ensure they time their runs as smoothly as possible without faltering in an offside position.

As you can see, the high line leaves oceans of space between the outfield players and goalkeeper. While multiple teams on the continent initially created and thereby adopt this method, not many stay as stoically high as Hasenhuttl’s men.

As stated, it is not uncommon for teams to take up brave starting positions. But when they do, there is usually an emphasis on using the first step of the free-kick taker’s run-up as a trigger to begin dropping.

But with Southampton, as this sequence against West Brom illustrates, they often stand stationary and extremely high – look how they are positioned on the edge of the d, rather than the edge of the box.

This not only shows their methodology is an exception rather than the rule, but fights against all natural instincts. As a youngster, you are habitually told to stay ball and goal side. But with Hasenhuttl, he prefers opposition players to run off his defenders, relying on VAR and the linesman flag to call offside.

Ultimately, this is why opposing teams frequently enjoy the freedom of the box to finish a move off. Rather than call it poor undisciplined marking, there is clear method to the discernible insanity. In the first 23 games of this season, Southampton had provoked the fourth most offsides in the league (51). This statistic alone shows the collective approach to condense space is working efficiently.

Like all decisions taken in football or within all systems created, it does possess flaws and marked drawbacks. The precarious strategy can result in runs from deep (note Kyle Bartley’s in the example below) or third man movements being less likely to be caught offside. The more ground an opposition player has to cover, the more time they have to stay onside. In this instance, Bartley was onside but misses the target.

Step 2: Defending wide set pieces

Wide set pieces are instantly met with a staunch resistance to drop into their box. Southampton deem the white paint of an 18 yard-box as some sort of resistance and if they ever so slightly creep past that line, it can have dangerous ramifications.

In the below example, taken from the game against Manchester City in December, look at the stark difference in both team’s body shapes. Again, observe how Ward-Prowse is the first in line (Moussa Djenepo acts as a second wall). While Saints’ body weight is shifted onto their back leg, this presents a perfect example in how they use the 18-yard-box as a positional yardstick.

Circled in blue, Ruben Dias is already offside before the ball is even kicked.

Since the Man City game and throughout the season, Southampton’s confidence in their high positioning has continued to defy traditional footballing logic and has, in fact, got even higher. Invariably, they still use the 18-yard-box as their barometer, despite free-kicks being noticeably closer in proximity.

The fine line which Southampton continually straddle was typified against Everton, when they chose to remain acutely high, in spite of how close Lucas Digne’s deliveries were. In this instance, Richarlison is offside but forces a good save from Forster. Like Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti regularly attempted to overload the back post with his tallest players.