Analysis | Bundesliga teams’ goal-kicks and corners in 2020/21

Here we look at the goal-kicks and corners taken by Bundesliga sides this season. The plots show where on the pitch those passes end up for each team in the league.

Goal-kicks

Some obvious takeaways

  • Stuttgart and Leipzig have the strongest commitment to playing goal-kicks inside their own penalty box, with Gladbach not far behind.
  • Freiburg launch it long more than any other Bundesliga side.
  • Bayern are the team most inclined to play goal-kicks into the zone between their own penalty area and the halfway-line.
  • Union almost never play goal-kicks into that same zone, and Bielefeld, Bremen and Freiburg do so rarely.
  • Freiburg are the most predictable team when it comes to where their goal-kicks will end up.
  • Wolfsburg direct almost all their long kicks to the left side of the pitch, whereas Hoffenheim, Cologne and Bremen play the vast majority of their long balls to the right

 

Corners

Some obvious takeaways:

  • While no Bundesliga side favours the short corner, Bayern and Frankfurt are more inclined to use them.
  • More than half the teams in the league have pretty much abandoned short corners altogether: Schalke, Dortmund, Gladbach, Mainz, Union, Augsburg, Cologne, Bremen, Freiburg and Stuttgart.
  • Leipzig and Union’s corner takers are clearly under instructions to aim for the zone between the penalty spot and the six-yard box.
  • Frankfurt, Dortmund and Gladbach show the clearest preference for near-post corners.
  • Freiburg, Bremen and Bielefeld appear to prioritise far-post deliveries.
  • Dortmund, Gladbach, Leipzig and Bremen very seldom play corners into the six-yard box.
  • Mainz only tend to play short corners from the right-hand side, whereas Bielefeld play far more short corners from the left.

 

Russell Pegg

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