Switch those two around!
David Bentley
Other than Southampton, teams should really be shooting from free kicks very rarely if at all. Unless you have an exceptional taker or unusual circumstances (deep in injury time, or you spot the defense out of position and try a quick one), a pass/cross is the best option at the top level of the modern game. Although I'm sure fans would get very frustrated by it...
Totally agree. Best goal I ever saw from a direct free kick? Argentina v England at World Cup 98.
Surely football’s being more unpredictable should favour the taker? We know Bale is an exceptional set piece taker. It’s kinda scandalous that he was moved off them by Ronaldo at Madrid who was only slightly better at them than Kane. I would be very surprised if now that his confidence is up he doesn’t score one by the end of the season.
I agree with the latter part of your post, but the unpredictability of the ball only favours the taker if it gets past the wall and is on target, and that in itself seems harder to achieve than it used to be for a myriad of reasons. I do think the lack of individuals is the bigger reason though. The team player who also specialists in set pieces like Beckham or Ward Prowse is rare, but the maverick who lights everything up is even rarer these days sadly.
Not really, because there's only an absolutely tiny portion of the goal where the shot will go in at PL level, and you need the power, dip over the wall etc too. A free-kick has to be essentially perfect, or benefit from a defensive howler or unlucky defection, to go in.
That's true with a classical up and down curling freekick, but with Bale's knuckleball one he developed, it actually exploits the unpredictabilty of where the modern ball will go. Who can ever forget that poor Lyon keeper who was traumatised by the ball moving all over the place, he didn't know which way to dive.
No reason they can't mix it up especially from more central positions. Not knowing which way it's likely to go makes it harder to defend and set up for.
