Adrian Clarke looks at key tactical trends to emerge across the 2024/25 season so far.
Outswinging corners fall out of fashion
Premier League managers, and their set-piece analysts, have largely turned their backs on outswinging corners during the early stages of this campaign.
Liverpool were big advocates of this type of delivery under Jurgen Klopp, regularly aiming for the towering presence of Virgil van Dijk.
The new coaching staff at Anfield prefer inswingers though, using them 48 times compared to just nine outswingers.
In recent seasons, set-piece masters Arsenal have consistently curled left-footed crosses in from the right and vice versa on the opposite flank, aiming the ball into the six-yard box with pace.
Their success has perhaps influenced others, with 18 of the 20 top-flight sides attempting more inswinging corners than outswingers this season.
Twelve of those 18 teams have delivered fewer than 10 deliveries that curl away from the goal, almost cutting them out completely.
Fulham and West Ham United are the only clubs to have bucked this trend, bending the ball away from goal with the majority of their corners.
As it stands, we have seen a significant 10.4 per cent decrease in outswingers compared to last season.
Comparing corners by season
| Corner type | 22/23 | 23/24 | 24/25 |
| % Cross | 81.2% | 80.5% | 81.1% |
|---|---|---|---|
| % Short | 17.7% | 18.8% | 18.5% |
| % Inswinging | 47.6% | 48.8% | 60.6% |
| % Outswinging | 31.4% | 29.2% | 18.8% |
You can see in the graphics below how the pattern of corners have changed across the past three campaigns.
This season, 42 per cent (13 + 19 + 10) of all corners have been aimed inside the six-yard box, testing the goalkeeper within that crowded domain.
A further 27 per cent (6 + 15 + 6) of corners have been aimed at the next six-yard corridor leading up to the penalty spot.
Corners 2024/25 - where they have been aimed
Last season, 36 per cent of all corners were aimed inside the six-yard box, while 34 per cent were aimed at the next six-yard rectangle up to the penalty spot.
Corners 2023/24 - where they were aimed
And in the 2022/23 campaign there were more corners aimed at that "second six-yard box" (35 per cent) than in the actual six-yard area (34 per cent).
Corners 2022/23 - where they were aimed
Has this tactical tweak been successful? So far, the answer is no.
Goals from corners (27) have had their lowest share of all goals (11.8 per cent) for eight years.
Pressing is increasing
Teams at both ends of the Premier League table want to press opponents high up the pitch.
Ipswich Town are a case in point.
In and around the bottom three for most of the campaign so far, Kieran McKenna’s side still ranked fifth for the most pressures inside the final third (58 per 90 minutes) after 10 rounds of matches.
That positive, attacking mindset is reflected across the division, where the direction of travel shows a steady increase in the pressure applied to opposition players when they are looking to play out from the back.
There has been a rise in this department year-on-year across the last five seasons.
Goalkeepers keeping their passing short
Goalkeeping habits have played a part in this tactical pattern.
An increasing number of head coaches want their 'keepers to be comfortable with their feet, passing the ball with confidence from inside their own penalty area.
It is a tactic that naturally encourages rival sides to hunt for turnovers in advanced positions.
Over the course of the last five years, the percentage share of long and short passes made by 'keepers has effectively flipped around.
Short passes have become their favoured choice, reflected by a 10.3 per cent increase from the 2021/22 season (44.6 per cent) to the current campaign so far (54.9 per cent).
Goalkeeper passing trends
| Season | % Long passes | % Short passes |
| 2021/22 | 55.4% | 44.6% |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 53.8% | 46.2% |
| 2023/24 | 50.6% | 49.4% |
| 2024/25 | 45.1% | 54.9% |
Half of the Premier League teams are opting to play short goal-kicks the majority of the time.
The lowest users are Everton and Arsenal with 25 and 30 per cent respectively, with the Gunners notably moving away from enticing opponents onto them from these restarts.
Teams such as Southampton (84.1 per cent), Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur (both 80 per cent) enjoy trying to play through a high press from goal-kicks as a matter of course.
With those changes to goalkeepers’ distribution and the rise in final-third pressures, you might have expected high turnovers to have increased too.
This is not the case.
In fact, high turnovers are 14.9 per match in 2024/25, down from 16.7 per cent, indicating that players are becoming more press-resistant and comfortable at playing out through the thirds.
Finishing is less clinical
Premier League players are missing more chances this season, in which the tally of goals scored by all clubs is 11.35 lower than the number of Expected Goals (xG).
This is in contrast to three of the previous five seasons, when the final total of goals exceeded xG.
Nine Premier League teams are currently under-performing against their xG.
Chance-conversion rates have also dipped to levels not seen since 2015/16, with only 10.6 per cent of attempts resulting in goals.
Last season, the shot conversion rate was at 11.9 per cent - a high for the division - as a record-breaking number of goals were scored (1,246).
Goals from penalties are decreasing
Fewer penalties are being awarded and converted.
An average of 0.26 spot-kicks were awarded per match across the previous 10 seasons, but with tweaks made to the laws of the game at the start of the 2024/25 season, that figure has dropped to 0.17.
See: 2024/25 Changes to laws of the game
Accuracy from the spot has also decreased.
In 2023/24, an incredible 90 per cent of penalties were successfully converted, compared with 78.9 per cent of the 19 penalties taken so far this season.
It is interesting to note the high rate of success when spot-kicks are lifted off the ground, with several lofted efforts down the middle paying off.
Changing goal patterns
A downturn in goals from penalties and from set-pieces - the overall share has dropped 2.3 per cent - means we are enjoying more open-play strikes than ever before.
Open play has created 74.8 per cent of all goals this season - its highest share since records began in 2004/05. The average across that entire period is 69.6 per cent.
For the fourth season in a row, there has been an increase in matches where both teams score. It has happened in 64 per cent of all matches in this campaign, compared with 49 per cent in 2020/21.
Attacking tactics, and a significant increase in stoppage time, have probably played a part in this change.
Increase in both teams scoring
| Season | % Both teams scored | Season | % Both teams scored |
| 2019/20 | 51% | 2022/23 | 52% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | 49% | 2023/24 | 62% |
| 2021/22 | 50% | 2024/25 | 64% |
The most popular results in the current campaign are 1-1 and 2-1.
This is not especially unusual - those scorelines have been among the six most common outcomes in each of the last five seasons - but their recurrence has soared in 2024/25.
After 11 Matchweeks, 29 per cent of Premier League contests have ended 1-1 or 2-1. Previously, their combined share of scorelines has never been higher than 19 per cent.
