Brighton this season have scored a lot of goals from set pieces and dead ball situations. The question many people are asking is just how this has happened?
Set Pieces
Let’s begin with set pieces. Brighton have been strong from set pieces for a few reasons, of which all three will be covered below.
Spoilt for Set Piece takers
The Seagulls are spoilt for set-piece takers in their squad, with Pascal Gross, Anthony Knockaert, Yves Bissouma and Solly March to name just a few. All the players mentioned above can put in some wicked deliveries for the attackers and centre-halves in the box to attack.
The amount of set-piece takers in the squad means Brighton can rely on someone else if one of their regular set-piece takers is missing. For example, with Gross out injured at the moment, they have relied on Knockaert for set pieces, and he has certainly delivered, pardon the pun!
Knockaert has already put in two deliveries that have led to goals in the last couple of games.
Aerial threats from centre-halves
Albion under Chris Hughton have also seen the centre-halves becoming more threatening and scoring goals. Shane Duffy was brought in by Hughton to get add more aerial threat to the backline alongside Lewis Dunk. Duffy repaid Hughton’s faith in him in his first season at the club in the promotion campaign from the Championship, with him scoring two goals in 31 games.
Duffy has started this season well scoring two goals in the opening six games and has been unlucky not to have more goals to his name due to him pretty much getting his head on nearly every set piece.
Then alongside Duffy, we have home-grown centre-half, Lewis Dunk. The 26-year old centre-half has also been a threat from attacking set pieces. Dunk, like Duffy, scored two goals in the promotion campaign from the Championship in the 2016/17 season. Then last season he scored one goal, which was a big one to give Brighton the lead against Arsenal at The Amex (pictured below).
This season Dunk is yet to score, but if Duffy does not get his head on attacking set pieces, then Dunk will get his head on it.
Aerial threat from Glenn Murray
It is not just Dunk and Duffy that are threatening from set pieces. Striker Glenn Murray is also a handful and has over the years, for not just Brighton, he has shown how much of an aerial threat he is.
This season Murray is yet to score a header, which is very rare for him. However, a good chunk of his goals last season did come from headers.
Dead ball situations
It’s not just set pieces Brighton have been in excellent form, it is also from dead ball situations. The Seagulls have been awarded four penalties this season. Out of these four penalties, Brighton have scored three, with only one being missed by Gross against Fulham with the score level at 0-0. The three penalties that Albion have scored this season have been by Murray.
Albion are against spoilt for penalty takers, with Murray, Gross, Jurgen Locadia, Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Florin Andone having been regular penalties takers for their clubs before joining Brighton. With three goals from dead ball situations and two goals from set pieces this season, Brighton have shown their strength from these situations and these stats will be a lot higher come the end of the season.
