England need to rediscover what 'set' them apart

Goals scored via free-kicks and corners have dwindled since 2018 but could be key to glory

- Malik Ouzia

THERE was an almost sadistic pride taken in England's sudden set-piece dominance during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, some strange, probably jingoistic twinge that this was how it always ought to be.

It was old-school stuff, our lads hardened by the physicality of the English game; too big, too brave to be stopped. Indeed, to watch Harry Maguire attack deliveries at that tournament was to wonder how anyone in the Premier League had ever managed it.

The reality, of course, was something a little different, born of twin acknowledgements by Gareth Southgate: that set-pieces accounted for a disproportionate number of major tournament goals and that mastery of the art might cover for the flaws in a team that possessed nothing like the attacking talent of the one about to start this summer's European Championship in Germany.

Across the course of that World Cup, England scored nine of their 12 goals from set-pieces, a remarkable percentage even if inflated by the reluctance of some teams to get to grips with VAR'S new scrutiny when it came to grappling at corners. (Yes, Panama, that's you). By the European Championship of three summers later, however, that output dipped to three out of 11 goals and then three from 13 at the World Cup in Qatar.