Pep Guardiola is happy that Manchester City have scored a Premier League low 15.8% of their 57 goals this season from set pieces.
City’s nine goals from set plays are the second fewest in the division, ahead of the eight scored by Nottingham Forest and Wolves, as of Tuesday afternoon. Arsenal are the only team to have scored more goals in total than City, with 58, but 24 of them have come from set pieces, representing a 41.3% share, the highest of any top-flight side.
“Good,” Guardiola said when informed City were the least reliant team in the Premier League when it comes to set-piece goals. However, he appreciates that they are a growing trend. “We are moving in that direction,” he said. “I pay more attention to set pieces than when I started my career in Barcelona [in 2008]. Much more.”
Guardiola leaves it up to his set-piece coach, James French, to drill his squad in such plays – “I don’t have much time. I need to rest” – and is intent on innovating to nullify the growing threat from set pieces. “Football is about how, when the opponents create problems for you, you have to find a solution,” the 55-year-old said.
“When we started with Kevin De Bruyne in the channels between central defenders and full-backs to the byline, people started playing five at the back. We killed them there with David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne so they said: ‘We need another defender.’ It’s all evolution. Set pieces are the same.”
Before Liverpool’s game against Wolves on Tuesday, Arne Slot described the Premier League as being “not as joyful” as it once was because of the growing emphasis on dead balls. “When I was a young boy in Spain, we said the people in England celebrate corners and free-kicks like a goal – so nothing has changed,” was Guardiola’s response to this.
“It is true Arsenal dictates a little bit how they [every team] do it. Four years ago in the NBA the three-shot point was not involved as much, but the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Curry [started] to make three points more and everyone adapted.
“You can sit and complain, but you have to adapt. You have to adapt and especially adapt in the way it is whistled [refereed] and conducted in the Premier League. I understand completely the reason why Arne said that and in some aspects I agree.”
Guardiola would not be drawn on the increasingly amount of jostling that takes place at set pieces, especially at corners. “I share with my players for a long time but what happens inside the box and outside the box remains absolutely to me and I don’t want to share it with you,” he said.
City face Forest at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening and Erling Haaland and Nico O’Reilly face late fitness tests regarding their availability for the game after missing the 1-0 win at Leeds on Saturday with injury. A win for the hosts will help keep the pressure on Arsenal with the leaders visiting Brighton on Wednesday and, also, move even closer to once again guaranteeing Champions League football next season. For Guardiola, this is more vital than winning the Premier League.
“City is the only team in England in the last 10, 11, 12 years [actually 16] to do that,” he said. “Last season there was a lot of pressure on my shoulders, I felt the pressure higher than ever from maybe not qualifying in the Champions League. The Fulham game, the last one [of last season], oh God, it was mentally the most difficult one.” City beat Fulham 2-0 at Craven Cottage to finish third.