FPL Set Piece Takers

We look in depth at who takes set-pieces at various Premier League clubs this season.

The list is consistently updated and sourced from various channels, including previous matches and interviews.

Penalties

Penalty takers make a key indicator in picking FPL players. This can be especially crucial in deciding between two players of the same price in the same position. Statistically, it should be a no-brainer to pick the player who takes spot kicks for his team.

A total of 471 penalties have been awarded in the Premier League over the last 5 seasons
Conversion rate is between 70% to 80% every season
Manchester United have been awarded 26 penalties over the last 2 seasons; the most (19 converted)
Newcastle United have been awarded 4 in the same period, the least (2 converted)

Another interesting point to note is that there will be many occasions which the penalty taker would be changed to a player already on two goals in a game (this favours high scoring forwards).

Also note that for some clubs, it would be guess work as they have new signings who had been established penalty takers elsewhere but had not taken one for his new team. They are indicated by (*).

Players who have taken a spot kick for their clubs this season are indicated in BLUE.

Club	Penalties
Arsenal	Aubameyang
Aston Villa	El Ghazi, Grealish, Wesley
Brighton	Maupay
Burnley	Barnes, Wood, Rodriguez
Chelsea	Jorginho, Werner*
Crystal Palace	Milivojevic, Ayew, Zaha
Everton	Sigurdsson; Rodriguez*
Fulham	Mitrovic, Kamara
Leeds United	Klich, Bamford
Leicester City	Vardy
Liverpool	Salah, Milner
Manchester City	De Bruyne, Aguero, Gündogan, Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling
Manchester United	Fernandes, Rashford
Newcastle United	Ritchie, Almirón
Sheffield United	Norwood, McGoldrick, Sharp
Southampton	Ings, Ward-Prowse
Tottenham Hotspur	Kane, Son
West Bromwich Albion	Austin, Robson-Kanu, Zohore
West Ham United	Noble, Antonio
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Raúl Jiménez, Ruben Neves

Corners / Indirect Free-kicks

Naturally there will be a lot of names in this section as teams rotate their takers depending on which side the set-piece is from. They also train several routines in training so this table is more historically indicative then forward looking.

Statistically, this section does not provide much more meaning. It is perhaps more worthwhile to look at players whom have high number of assists season on season (KDB, TAA, etc)

Club	Corners & Indirect Free Kicks
Arsenal	Pepe, Willian, Saka,
Aston Villa	Hourihane, Grealish, McGinn, Targett, El Ghazi, Trezeguet
Brighton and Hove Albion	Groß, Lallana, March, Trossard
Burnley	Westwood, McNeil, Gudmundsson, Brady
Chelsea	Mount, Barkley, Hudson-Odoi, James, Emerson, Pulisic
Crystal Palace	Milivojevic, Van Aanholt, Eze, McCarthy, Townsend
Everton	Rodriguez, Digne, Sigurdsson, Bernard, Walcott
Fulham	Bryan, Knockaert, Cavaleiro, Cairney, Johansen, Kebano
Leeds United	Phillips, Douglas, Hernández, Harrison
Leicester City	Maddison, Tielemans, Albrighton, Gray
Liverpool	Alexander-Arnold, Robertson, Henderson, Milner,
Manchester City	De Bruyne, Mahrez, Gündogan, Bernardo Silva, Foden
Manchester United	Bruno Fernandes, Mata, Rashford, Shaw
Newcastle United	Ritchie, Shelvey, Longstaff, Atsu
Sheffield United	Norwood, Fleck, Freeman, Osborn, Lundstram
Southampton	Ward-Prowse, Bertrand
Tottenham Hotspur	Son, Lo Celso, Lamela, Winks, Lucas Moura, NDombele
West Bromwich Albion	Phillips, Matheus Pereira, Grosicki
West Ham United	Snodgrass, Bowen, Noble, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Cresswell, Fornals
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Moutinho, Ruben Neves, Pedro Neto, Podence

Direct Free-kicks

Let this stat sink in – a total of 49 direct free kicks have been scored in the Premier League over the last 760 games. That is around 2 every 3 gameweeks.

Among the active players, Mata holds the most goals direct from free kicks (8), follow by Sigurdsson (7). Over the last two seasons, Alexander-Arnold holds the record with just 3.

We recommend not to be too fixated on this statistics – direct free kick goals are not regular occurrences in Premier League and the top 3 active direct free kick takers are probably Alexander-Arnold, Mahrez and Ward-Prowse, knowing which is unlikely to change your choice of players.

Pereira scored a beauty of a freekick on GW02.