Brighton set piece coach Nick Stanley has left the Amex for Norwich City – giving Seagulls supporters hope they might actually see their team do something radical like score from corners in the new season.
The Albion had never employed a specialist set piece coach until Glow Up Graham Potter promoted Stanley into the newly created role in February 2022.
Previously an analyst, Stanley became a visible presence in the technical area on matchdays until Potter slithered off to Stamford Bridge.
He was one of the few members of staff Glow Up did not take with him to Chelsea, instead remaining set piece coach under De Zerbi.
Brighton have developed a well-earned reputation for being dogshit at set pieces over the past few seasons.
Or as WAB correspondent Warren Morgan wrote slightly more diplomatically earlier in the month: “Corners and free kicks have over recent seasons become a standing joke in my part of the Amex.”
The numbers bear this out. The Albion scored only 2.5 goals per 100 set pieces in the 2022-23 season. Things did not get much better in 2023-24. Just six goals from corners and free kicks in the entire campaign, putting Brighton 16th in the Premier League table.
It is not as if the Albion did not have players within their ranks capable of threatening from set pieces either.
Alexis Mac Allister scored a superb free kick against Leicester City early in the 2022-23. Did he even take another one after that? Answers on a postcard.
Pascal Gross and Solly March possess great deliveries from wide positions. Valentin Barco showed in his appearances towards the end of last season that he can whip over a wicked ball.
And then there is Simon Adingra. A player who takes a corner good enough to give him an assist to help Ivory Coast win an African Cup of Nations final. But who was rarely entrusted with taking duties in an Albion shirt.
In terms of getting on the end of set piece deliveries, Brighton have options in that department too. Lewis Dunk. Adam Webster. Joel Veltman. Igor. Jan Paul van Hecke.
All three of the Albion’s leading forwards – Danny Welbeck, Evan Ferguson and Joao Pedro – are also excellent in the air.
Rather than concentrating on getting Dunk onto the end of a corner, the Albion captain’s main role from set pieces has been to twat free kicks from 30 yards out as hard as possible based on one attempt in 2019 going vaguely near the goal.
Nine times out of 10, Dunk poses more danger to migrating birds flying over Stanmer Park than the back of the opposition net.
To offer some sort of defence of Stanley, set pieces were never high on the priority list of Roberto De Zerbi.
That is in stark contrast to set piece lover Fabian Hurzeler. The new Albion head coach is on record as saying: “I’m a big fan of set pieces because set pieces are a game changer. They are a match winner. This would be part of my identity.”
Almost a quarter of St Pauli’s goals total in their Bundesliga 2 title winning season came from corners and free kicks.
It is perhaps telling that a manager who places high value on set pieces has, within a month of arriving in Brighton, allowed Nick Stanley to leave his role as set piece coach.
Albion fans can now look to a future in which set piece takers might stop paying tribute to Dean Cox by failing to beat the first man.
Those days are over when the reward for making a 700-mile round trip to Newcastle United was nine successive corners floated harmlessly towards the back post.
No more Dunk taking direct free kicks. And the Amex will never groan collectively again as an attacking corner is worked all the way back to Jason Steele.
Actually, can we keep that last one? It was always fun for the subsequent meltdown in the West Upper.
