Sheffield United: The interesting theory behind promotion-chasers set-piece excellence

With more than a quarter of his team’s goals coming from dead ball deliveries since August, the manager and his staff are reaping the rewards of the work they have been undertaking to improve United’s metrics at free-kicks, throw-ins and corners.

Speaking as preparation for Boxing Day’s game against Coventry City begin in earnest, Heckingbottom last night revealed that members of his squad are encouraged to design some of the moves which mean only Millwall have netted more times from restarts in the Championship this term.

“We’ve set little team targets, which we think is important,” Heckingbottom explained. “We want them (the players) to be involved as well, because we think that’s better than just having a one-way process. We teach a lot but it’s also more enjoyable if you have a part to play in that as well and we want them to enjoy themselves and be happy.

“I think we’ve had opportunities to score from them every game. The lads can see that and it’s good that they’re disappointed when we don’t.”

The wisdom of United’s decision to focus on set-pieces was evident during Monday’s win over Wigan Athletic, when John Egan headed home from a corner taken by Oliver Norwood before Billy Sharp stretched their advantage. Nathan Broadhurst later reduced the deficit but Kolo Toure’s men could not prevent United from strengthening their grip on second place; moving five points clear of Blackburn Rovers in third.

Admitting that Oliver Norwood, who claimed the assist for Egan’s finish, had improvised after spotting a vulnerability in the hosts’ defence, Heckingbottom told The Star: “It (the ball) actually went into the wrong place. Well, a different place to where it was supposed to but it was the right thing to do because we scored from it.

“I’d love to practise set pieces even more. With the time and the fixtures we had at the start of the season, it wasn’t always easy but whenever we have a recovery day we usually go through them.”