You know what a soccer match looks like. Fast-kicking. Low-scoring. Ties. You bet. The world’s game has been roughly the same for decades, over a century even. This season, though, at least in the Premier League, has been something different: long throws and an emphasis on set plays. Dead balls. Almost a different sport.
The self-proclaimed best league in the world has rewound the clock to a different era. An era most believed had disappeared in the dust of tiki-taka, expected goals, and everything else that made modern soccer “modern.” Anyone who has watched a Premier League game this season would swear the 1990s are back.
Completed passes are at a 15-year low. For a long time, Pep Guardiola’s widespread influence as the master of possession soccer could be charted in the average number of passes per Premier League game. From Guardiola’s arrival at Manchester City in the 2016-17 season to 2020-21, passing increased by 7 percent (881.7 passes per game to 945.2 passes per game).
From that 2020-21 peak to now, though, passing has dropped by almost 100 passes per game. Tiki-taka is all but dead. Instead, this era of the Premier League is being defined by corner-kick routines, punts from deep, and throws launched from the sideline. The NFL-ization of soccer is happening right in front of our eyes.
This is most starkly seen in the proliferation of long throw-ins (defined by Opta as anything over 21.9 yards). Most (in)famously used by Tony Pulis and Stoke City in the late aughts and early 2010s, the tactic of hucking the ball into the opposition box used to be the mark of an underdog. It was a way for the less talented to level the playing field. Now, it is a method being utilized by even the strongest teams in the Premier League. Pulis was ahead of his time.
Manchester United, historic heavyweights that spent more than $300 million on transfers in the summer, are using it. New signing Benjamin Sesko’s first Old Trafford goal came from a Diogo Dalot long throw into the box in a game against Sunderland. Ruben Amorim’s team has generated four shots from similar situations so far this season, tied for the sixth most in the top flight, while Newcastle United, technically the richest club in the Premier League, are also launching their fair share of throw-ins into the box. Neither team fits the underdog mold.
Brentford, however, are leading the way as long-throw pioneers. They have scored three times this season by chucking the ball into the area, and they generated a league-high 20 shots from 70 long throw-ins after just the first three months of the season. Brentford matches are the closest thing to an NFL game you’re likely to get in the Premier League.
Right back Michael Kayode is Brentford’s Matthew Stafford Not only does Kayode possess a cannon, but the angle and trajectory of his flings are wicked. Most long throws are lobs. Kayode’s, however, are missiles, flat and arrowed. They’re almost impossible to defend, which explains why Brentford have scored seven times from long throws since the start of last season, while no other Premier League side has scored more than twice.
Brentford manager Keith Andrews is a totem for the changing trends at the top of the English game. Appointed in the summer, Andrews was previously the club’s specialist set piece coach. Far from being a peripheral figure, the Irishman was so central to Brentford’s tactical approach that he was next in line for the top job when Thomas Frank left for Tottenham Hotspur.
Crystal Palace and Sunderland also warrant a mention as two of the most prolific long throwers in England. Both teams are currently occupying places in the top half of the table and could hurl their way to European qualification by playing a brand of soccer that isn’t especially continental.
So far, the rest of Europe’s Big Five leagues have resisted the NFL-ization that has gripped the Premier League. In the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, and Serie A, there has been no meaningful uptick in the number of long throws per game this season. Or the number of set pieces. Some teams are going from back to front quicker (see Hansi Flick’s Barcelona), but they aren’t launching it from the touchline like their English counterparts.
But other teams in Europe have experienced success with the tactic. FC Midtjylland won the Danish title back in the 2014-15 season, scoring an incredible 25 set piece goals in a single campaign. Incidentally, Midtjylland at the time had the same owner as Brentford, Matthew Benham, a professional gambler and data nerd who appears to have made dead balls central to his ownership ethos.
England captain Harry Kane, despite playing in the Bundesliga, has spoken about the Three Lions’ “NFL-like playbook” and how it could help the national team win the World Cup next summer. Kane, a known NFL fanatic who increasingly resembles a quarterback in the way he drops deep as a striker to propel passes forward, could just be cosplaying as his hero, Tom Brady, but his words hint at a changing sport.
Twenty-five percent of England’s goals in World Cup qualifying came from set pieces. “I know it is not the prettiest part of the game, but we have always been big on set plays, both defending and attacking,” said Kane last month. “I feel like we are getting in some really good routines attacking-wise. Obviously Dec[lan Rice] and players like that can put in perfect crosses and are doing it week in, week out for their clubs as well.”
Indeed, “Dec” is doing just that. In fact, Rice’s set piece deliveries are a big reason why Arsenal are sitting atop the Premier League table, with the Gunners scoring off free kicks and corners more than any other side in Europe.
Thirty-two percent of Arsenal’s league goals (10 out of 31) in the 2025-26 league campaign to date have come from set pieces. On the left side, they have Rice to whip it in. On the right, they have star man Bukayo Saka. And from defense, they have Gabriel Magalhães a human battering ram willing to power his head through anything in the 6-yard box.
Even when Gabriel is effectively marked, Arsenal have enough variety to pose a set piece threat. They will isolate Leandro Trossard at the back post to prod home loose balls. They will hassle the opposition goalkeeper and cause chaos in the box. Whenever Arsenal win a corner or a free kick, fans rise out of their seats in anticipation. There’s a very good chance it will lead to something.
“I’m a Liverpool supporter, I’m watching Arsenal, and every time they get a corner, my head is in my hands,” said Jamie Carragher on the Sky Sports Premier League Podcast in October, reflecting the terror felt by opposition fans when they’re facing the Arsenal set piece machine. “I’ve never seen anything like this before in football. I think the whole football world feel every time they get a corner, they’re going to score a goal.”
Manager Mikel Arteta’s set piece vision for Arsenal was a decade in the making. “I wasn’t here but 10 years ago, I said ‘it is a massive thing to do that’ and I started to have a vision, try to implement a method and try to be surrounded by the best people to deliver that,” said the Spaniard in a recent interview.
Nicolas Jover is surely one of the people Arteta means. He is Arsenal’s set piece coach. You might have seen him during games. He’s the guy who takes up a position on the touchline every time Arsenal have a free kick or corner. For those moments, he’s in charge. He’s the one orchestrating, and when a goal is scored, he is frequently the center of any celebrations among the coaching staff. It’s all very NFL-coded.
Chelsea paid an unprecedented $1.1 million to land their very own set piece coach last year, signing Bernardo Cueva from Brentford, and the Blues are already seeing a return on their investment. Enzo Maresca’s team has scored 10 times (all competitions) from set pieces this season, giving Chelsea a route to goal when their open-play creativity has been lacking.
Across the board, the statistics show a shift. Through the first two months of this season, the ball was in play for nearly two minutes less per match than last season and more than three minutes less than the season before that, according to Opta Analyst. Teams are deliberating for longer over set pieces and throw-in routines. When Liverpool beat Newcastle United back in August, the total delay for free kicks amounted to 27 minutes and seven seconds. Fans are watching less actual soccer.
All this raises the question: Is this a problem? Is the spirit of the so-called “beautiful game” at risk? Or is there beauty in the chaos resulting from long throws and set plays? If the Premier League is experiencing some sort of late-stage Moneyball movement, boiling down soccer to crude data and the marginal gains that come from it, are fans OK with that? Is this what we want soccer to be in 2025 and beyond?
How many long throws would ever make a highlight reel of soccer’s most iconic moments throughout history? Will a flick-on from a Kayode hurl ever be shown alongside Diego Maradona’s dribble from inside his own half against England at the 1986 World Cup or Zinedine Zidane’s volley out of the sky in the 2002 Champions League final? Is soccer less glorious because of its latest tactical twist?
Tactical trends are cyclical, but the changes made over the 15 years that preceded our current moment initially felt somewhat permanent. Soccer became more skillful than ever before. Barcelona and Spain’s team of intricate passers changed the sport forever. Or so it was thought. Now the big lads are back and want to scrum the ball into the back of the net.
This is even true of Guardiola’s Manchester City now that they have a Norwegian man/mountain leading the line. Indeed, City are increasingly playing to Erling Haaland’s strengths, attempting more long balls and stringing together shorter possession sequences. Guardiola’s side is recording twice as many fast breaks per game compared to last season, while new goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma is kicking it long more often than City’s netminders did last year.
Against Arsenal in September, City had just 33.2 percent of possession. This was an all-time low for a Guardiola team over the 18 years of his management career, reflecting a broader stylistic evolution across the Premier League. Long balls into open space are now the norm. Teams are setting up to charge the field with runners as they do in another type of football.
While the likes of City and Arsenal still boast some of the highest average possession shares in the league, the sport is nevertheless going through a transformation. It’s one that puts a greater emphasis on the rehearsable rather than the spontaneous. The magical is now being outweighed by the methodical. Especially when teams struggle to defend this strategy. The teams that have conceded the most set piece goals in the Premier League this season are the ones spinning their wheels for consistent form—Bournemouth, West Ham, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest. The correlation is apparent. Get better at defending set pieces, not just attacking on them, and teams will experience greater success.
Soccer’s tactical cat-and-mouse game is part of what makes it so compelling. Jurgen Klopp’s “gegenpressing” was a response to Guardiola’s tiki-taka, making counter-pressing and winning the ball high up the field the difference maker. Now, teams are going direct to bypass the press. The tables are constantly being turned.
Before the next evolution, though, soccer’s NFL-ization could define more titles and tournaments. Might next summer’s men’s World Cup be won by a set piece specialist? U.S. midfielder Sebastian Berhalter scored off a rehearsed free kick routine and set up another goal from a corner in the USMNT’s victory against Uruguay last month. Could he be the host nation’s very own Rice?
FIFA is doing its part to help the NFL-ization of soccer, recently announcing that the 2026 World Cup will feature three-minute hydration breaks in each half, essentially splitting 90 minutes into four quarters. The governing body says this is to “prioritize player welfare” and combat the intense heat of the North American summer. You can bet, however, that FIFA and its TV partners are eyeing those three-minute breaks for commercials. Prepare to be sold stuff just as much as NFL fans are. And that’s to say nothing of the first World Cup final halftime show, which will be performed at MetLife Stadium.
Ultimately, though, soccer will survive all this. The world’s game has gone through countless rule changes for well over a century. It introduced video assistant referees a few years ago—which produce controversy practically every week—yet the sport remains as popular as ever. Next summer’s World Cup, expected to break all sorts of viewership and attendance records, will prove this.
Nonetheless, soccer’s latest evolution poses new questions. Has the sport’s natural entertainment value been permanently affected by the never-ending search for the next marginal gain? Has the spirit of a game codified in the 19th century changed forever? We might all have to get to grips with the “beautiful game” being a bit less beautiful.
Graham Ruthven
Graham Ruthven is a soccer writer based in the U.K. He is a cohost of the Total Soccer Show, contributes regularly to The Guardian, and has a newsletter called The Soccer Dispatch.
