What action is most likely to get you off your seat during a game of football? Perhaps a slaloming dribble? An eye-of-the-needle through ball? Or maybe a long-range effort headed inexorably for the top corner.
Goal kicks are probably not high on your list. Those are often your opportunity to watch the television replay, take a sip of your drink, grab one from the fridge, or quickly scroll through social media until the fun gets going again.
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However, don’t underestimate just how important goal kicks are in setting up your team’s first phase of attack.
Where goal kicks were once simply a chance to lump the ball upfield as a rugby-adjacent ‘playing for territory’ tactic, there is far more nuance, balance, and variety in the way sides set up and restart in the contemporary game.
The volume of short goal kicks has seen a noticeable uptick in recent years, catalysed by a 2019-20 law change that allows players to pass to a team-mate who is within their penalty area when taking a goal kick.
Much like any phase of play, some clubs are simply better in their execution of goal kicks than others.
A smattering of fans might still berate their goalkeeper when they play that five-yard pass to a nearby centre-back instead of “getting rid”, but we’re here to reassure you — short goal kicks are more likely to add value to your team’s overall attack than long ones.
First, let’s explore the approaches taken by each 2022-23 Premier League club by looking at the simple, average distance they distribute the ball from a goal kick.
Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur come out with lowest average goal-kick length this season, with Hugo Lloris — and more recently his injury replacement Fraser Forster — typically passing just 23 metres (75ft, or 25 yards) when building out from the back.
Meanwhile, Newcastle United (48.4m) just edge out Everton (48.2m) for the longest goal-kick average with their respective goalkeepers, Nick Pope and Jordan Pickford, the two leading contenders for the England No 1 shirt in next week’s opening 2024 European Championship qualifiers.
Sean Dyche may have only recently returned to the dugout, but there is something poetic in knowing that he has had a hand in both of these ’keepers’ goal-kick approach.
According to FBref, Dyche’s Burnley averaged the highest goal-kick length last season, with Pope launching the ball — defined as a pass of 40 yards (37m) or more — 91 per cent of the time, which was the highest by any 2021-22 Premier League club.
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Pope may have moved clubs last summer, but his remit has remained the same since arriving at St James’ Park — get it up the field.
This information can be interesting to sift through, but the variation of a team’s approach gets lost in the average — and it’s the variation that is critical.
When you dig a little deeper, you can start to see how much each team mix up their approach by going short or long. Based on previous work, short goal kicks are anything that ends within 40 metres of the kicking team’s goal. Unsurprisingly, long goal kicks will therefore be anything that goes over 40 metres.
Here, we see Liverpool are the team most likely to keep their goal kicks short, with Alisson electing to build out from the back more than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League. At the other end of the scale, David Raya of Brentford is the man most likely to go long from goal kicks, hitting it 40-plus metres 72 per cent of the time.
Meanwhile, Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa are among the most diverse teams in their goal-kick tendencies, with almost 50-50 splits between long and short distances.
The reasons for such variety in approach are likely to be multi-faceted. Some sides’ principles might be to play short in order to maintain controlled possession, while others might go long to maximise an aerial advantage they have in forward areas.
More specifically, teams are likely to adapt their approach, depending on the given opponent.
If a side reckon they can bait your weak press in order to open up space elsewhere, they will be likely to trust themselves to play short. Similarly, knowing that an opponent struggles in transitional moments might be an opportunity to play long, making the most of second balls to punish any unstructured shape.
It’s “horses for courses” for goal kicks, basically.
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And while it’s useful to examine the overall tendencies between short and long distances, it is even more useful to map out the exact end locations of each team’s goal kicks to gain a better insight into their style.
For example, Leeds United will often look to either wing with any long goal kick they take and Liverpool are allergic to a long pass out to the right flank — as opposed to Wolves, who absolutely love a ping to that side of the pitch.
This method can be a practical tool within opposition analysis — do you really want to watch all 185 goal kicks Brentford have taken, or would you rather get a feel for the variety of their distribution at a single glance?
We could even drill down on the player Raya looks for most often from goal kicks (Ivan Toney, for those wondering).
In fact, we can look at the most common pass-receiver for each Premier League team, with an interesting quirk among one team in particular. Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez is the only outfield goal-kick taker on the list, with his passes to goalkeeper David de Gea also being the most common combination in the whole league — linking to his Spanish team-mate on 45 per cent of United’s successful goal-kicks.
Why is this occurring? Put simply, a lack of trust in De Gea with the ball at his feet. United’s first-year manager Erik ten Hag reiterated his concerns about De Gea’s poor passing following their Europa League first leg against Real Betis last week, saying, “From today I can’t ignore it, but I think we have seen many games he did really well.”
As you can see in the passing graphic above, it is often a simple five-yard pass from Martinez to De Gea that starts the sequence within the six-yard box.
Whether it is an intentional tactic for United or not, this action can be advantageous in their build-up — as it allows them to open up passing angles in central areas and prevent the opposition from pressing onto one specific side of the pitch.
It might have been out of necessity, but United’s unpredictability allows them to take the initiative within this first phase of an attack.
OK, we’ve covered style, now let’s end with substance.
There has been some interesting work conducted which explores the value of short goal kicks versus long ones — you might even recognise some of the names.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out the risk associated with longer goal kicks when building an attack. While some players are stronger aerially than others, it’s called a 50-50 for a reason. You may as well ask the referee to flip a coin when teams are contesting a long ball — whoever wins gets to restart the play from wherever it lands.
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The point being, controlled possession is rarely the order of the day when launching it.
Short goal kicks are a far more accepted tactic in the modern game, but do they ultimately lead to a more lucrative phase of attack?
The evidence suggests they do. Across the whole Premier League this season, 13 per cent of long goal kicks taken have led to a touch in the opposition box by the kicking team within 60 seconds.
From short goal kicks, it’s 15 per cent of the time.
It may not sound a lot, but zoom in at the team level and you can tease out which teams get their advantage from retaining possession from the first kick.
The biggest beneficiaries have been Tottenham, who thrive off space in behind defences. While we know they don’t go long often, Conte’s set patterns to build out from the back have proven effective on multiple occasions — with the Spurs head coach defending his direct approach via Instagram last year following a perfectly crafted “fast attack” from a short goal kick against Manchester City.
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Unsurprisingly, City and Liverpool are also beneficiaries of short goal kicks within their overall attacking sequences, but it is interesting to see Newcastle showing similar improvement on the occasions when they do play it short from the back.
Eddie Howe’s men have reached the opposition’s penalty area within 60 seconds on 24 per cent of the 46 short goal kicks they have taken — the highest rate of any team in the division. Howe has transformed Newcastle’s passing since he arrived 16 months ago. He might also want to have a word with his goalkeeper.
Meanwhile, Southampton and Brentford defy the league as two notable teams who have greater attacking success from long goal kicks.
Why? It’s hard to pinpoint, but with a predominantly Ralph Hasenhuttl-based blueprint underpinned by transitional play, this less-controlled style has often suited Southampton.
And Brentford? Well, when you have the aerial presence of Toney — who has the fourth-highest aerial duel rate of any forward in the division — pulling wide to receive those long passes from Raya, it makes sense. Thomas Frank knows how to play to his team’s strengths.
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Which touches upon the most important point.
Teams will always play to the strengths of their own players, and look to expose the weaknesses of others. They might even change their approach, depending on the state of the game.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all plan. There is undoubted risk attached to playing short from goal kicks, where the probability of conceding a chance yourself is significant. Nevertheless, the reward can often outweigh the risk when it’s executed correctly.
Short goal-kicks lead to a long-term benefit.
They might even get you off your seat one day.
(Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
