In this blog Mark ***, an FA futsal coach developer, shares how he has explored the significance of set pieces in his coaching.

An introduction

It's pretty clear to see the importance of set pieces to any futsal team at any level. From International level (2022 Euros approx. a third of all goals came from set pieces - 57 of 173 goals), to UEFA Futsal Champions League (28% of goals from set pieces in the Finals) and all the way to lower-level teams at various ages. Set pieces within an attacking phase provide a structured opportunity to create and execute a goal scoring opportunity. Defensively they conversely provide an organised opportunity to deny a goal scoring opportunity as well as being the potential starting point for a transitional attack of your own.

With the obvious importance of set pieces statistically assured, its easy however to gloss over their wider “value” to teams, players, and coaches. Set pieces could be suggested to provide and offer a high return and value to many other areas of a team’s performance. Including a players technical and skill development, as well as a coaches skills set in analysis, planning, preparation and their coaching behaviors.

Its within these areas that I would like to focus this article on against the backdrop of my own current coaching context.

Within a new coaching role of a Men’s University Futsal team, in which many of the players have not previously played, I have once again been reminded of the significance of set pieces and their wider value to our development as a team. With only 3 training sessions before our first BUCS game of the season I had a plan to make every learning opportunity count and train with purpose to get the team ready. As with most well laid plans I knew from the first moment this would be a challenge to execute based on many factors within the University programme itself, the players as university students from a range of backgrounds and cultures, and their limited knowledge of Futsal or even Football.

Challenges aside I took the decision to spend the majority of time on providing a defensive and attacking framework so we had a game plan going into our first match against historically the strongest team in our division. Come the first game we travelled away to play and we performed well, drawing at half time and ending up with only had a 3-goal deficit at full time. However, what was the difference between the two teams – one being an experienced well organised opponent with an established Futsal programme in an established, high-ranking Sports University and us as novice players at the start of our journey as a Futsal programme?

Set pieces! 6 of the 8 goals we conceded were either scored directly from the opponents well ran set pieces or on the quick transition from our own poorly executed set pieces. In addition none of our goals came from our own attacking set pieces.

The significance of set pieces was evident to see during the game and in the post-game conversations and discussions with players. We all agreed that we would have to dedicate some time to set pieces over the coming training sessions. Gaining this player buy-in was the start of the process and a valuable catalyst for our progression over the following weeks. It also served as the starting point to the main focus of me writing this article and recognising the value of set pieces to our wider team performances, the players own individual development and an improvement in my coaching skill set. To keep this short I will look at what I believe to be the value of set pieces in each of these areas providing my own thoughts, insights and examples where possible as little snapshots – at worst I hope it promotes some thoughts and reflections from you as a coach and how set-pieces can add additional value to you in your context.

Look out for the following parts to this blog and feel free to ask any questions in the comments as we go.