Premier League teams need to pay attention

Under the leadership of Frank, Tottenham Hotspur is about to open a new era. Although Postkoglu led the team to win the 2024/25 Europa League championship, ending the club's 16-year championship drought, Tottenham's management decided to change its head coach.

Tottenham chose Frank because he performed well in his coaching Brentford in the past few years. Since the Little Bee was promoted to the Premier League in 2021, the Danish coach has played a key role in helping the team fight for the big with small and successfully relegation. At Tottenham, his role is to lead the team to compete for the top four in the Premier League and continue to win trophies.

The Danish coach was very lucky to take over a team with outstanding talent and good depth in key positions. He needs time to fully implement his tactical philosophy, but Tottenham's preseason performance has shown that Frank's magical power is working.

Soviet Tottenham have won two of five preseason games so far, including a 1-0 win over Arsenal. Frank strengthened the team's defense, but what's really striking is Tottenham's threat on set pieces.

Frank is known for his set-piece tactics, and his team is extremely threatening at dead ball. Settings are likely to become a winning weapon for Frank to motivate Tottenham to succeed.

How strong is Brentford set piece under Frank?

The key reason why Brentford can fight big under Frank is that he makes the team unpredictable in certain tactical aspects. He relies primarily on set pieces and counters to score goals and trains players to perform his tactics perfectly.

In the 2024/25 Premier League season, Brentford scored 13 goals through set pieces. Only four teams do better than they do in this regard. Not only that, the Bees have only conceded two goals in set-piece defense, making them the best team in the league.

Although Frank's former set piece coach (current Brentford coach) Keith Andrews made an indelible contribution, it was Frank himself who encouraged innovative set piece tactics. Brentford scored 10 goals through set pieces in the 2023/24 season, while 13 goals in the previous season.

The Danish coach often encourages a large number of players to enter the penalty area to interfere with opponents when they are indirectly free kicks or corner kicks. He likes to move strong players in different directions, causing trouble for opposing defenders who use zone defense.

Therefore, under Frank's tactics, Brentford players tend to gather in the penalty area. Through running and cover tactics, the ball can usually be dropped at the feet of their own players in the penalty area.

Frank emphasizes the compactness of the team, which helps the team stay strong when defending set pieces as they can very smartly mark opposing players.

How does Tottenham under Frank implement set pieces tactics?

As Tottenham head coach, Frank has only led the team to play a few friendly matches so far. However, the players seem to have understood what he asked and executed his tactics perfectly.

In the victory against Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur performed particularly well: they maintained an extremely tight line of defense, and the close cooperation of the defenders left the Gunners at a loss. Although Tottenham's goal came from Saar's wonderful long shot, they had already shown the threat of set-pieces early in that game.

Polo hit the post and almost scored a corner kick and scored directly. New aid Kudus also used his threatening set-piece cross to harass Arsenal players. Risalisson also missed an excellent opportunity, which was after a destructive corner kick that caused Raya to run away.

Frank has his fixed principles on set pieces such as corner kicks or indirect free kicks, which are very beneficial to him. Although he loves compact defensive formations, the Danish coach often likes to place up to seven players in the penalty area when attacking corners. In addition, two players will be arranged to stand outside the penalty area to pick up the ball that was cleared. By getting so many players into the penalty area, he created confusion for the opponent's defensive thinking.

Frank likes to have players use a "blocking" strategy to interfere with opponents, which often helps create opportunities in set-piece secondary attacks. He also likes to use short corner tactics, accidentally caught his opponent off guard and create panic in the penalty area.

Which Tottenham players can benefit from Frank's set piece advantage?

To allow Tottenham to perfectly execute Frank's set piece tactics, their strongest players in this regard need to stand up. In the preseason, the coach handed over most of the set-piece penalty responsibility to Polo and Kudus, especially in taking corners.

Frank showed a preference for the pronounce corner. This means that an expert who is good at taking corner kicks with his right foot on the left and an expert who takes corner kicks with his left foot on the right.

This allows the ball to spin towards the goal, allowing his players to press the defender backwards, fight for the cross, and create chaos in the penalty area.

Polo contributed 9 assists to Tottenham in the 2024/25 season, and his outstanding crossing ability is the reason why he will continue to take the corner kick. Kudus also contributed 13 assists in 80 games for West Ham United, and his tricky crossing ability can create a lot of opportunities for the team in set pieces.

It is commendable that Tottenham has also many reliable set-piece scorers in the team. Romero scored 5 goals in the 2023/24 Premier League season, all from set pieces.

The strong Solank often beats the defender through a set ball and fights for the top shot. Van der Fen and Bentancur are key players in set pieces and can contribute goals throughout the season.

Considering that Tottenham has an ideal combination of creative players and strong players who can outperform markers in set pieces, Frank's clever and proven set pieces tactics can completely make Tottenham a daunting threat in set pieces offense.

Even if they can only score about 15 goals through set pieces in the 2025/26 Premier League season, this itself can accumulate into multiple victories, which may be decisive for their goals for the top four.