Spurs’ equaliser last night once again saw them score from a set piece, with Ivan Perisic’s free kick finding Clement Lenglet – who rose highest to grab the equaliser.
That goal made it 11 set piece goals for Spurs across all competitions so far this season.
The key to this has been of course Gianni Vio. The Italian joined the club’s backroom staff in pre-season – bringing with him a whole load of experience, which has seen him work for the Italian national team as well as AC Milan and Brentford.
Players such as Dejan Kulusevski have highlighted Vio’s effect on the side saying: “I just told him three times that we have to give him more money. He has to get a pay rise for sure! Shout-out to him. He’s very important. He makes a difference, like you can see.” after Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Wolves, back in August.
To quantify Vio’s impact on the side we have crunched the numbers and data provided from TheAnalyst.
In the league so far this season Spurs have accumulated the most set piece goals in the league with 9. Also ranking second in the league – only behind Newcastle – for set-piece XG (5.92).
However, it is not only attacking set-pieces Spurs currently thrive from. The Lilywhites have only conceded one set-piece goal in the league this season, a record only beaten by one side – West Ham.
The underlying numbers also paint a good picture for Spurs fans as they have only conceded 1.62 XG against, so far this season – the second-best total in the league. This therefore shows this run of set piece success is sustainable, which could be key in seeing Tottenham succeed this season.
All quiet then, lol! COYS
Yep repeating rewards of our set-piece specialist.
If only Pochettino paid such attention to detail, Spurs could have, would have pipped Leicester to the league title. The same applies to our league challenge against Chelsea. Some disappointing draws would have been turned to victories., some losses turned into draws.
One final piece of the puzzle for our current team: identifying effective free kick takers (did one of our on loan players hint that certain colleagues don’t give them a chance to take free kicks?).
I recall Conte’ title winning Chelsea had William (R), Alonso (L) and a 3rd guy took central free kicks..between them they turned half a dozen handful of draws into wins. Voila.