The Art of the Dead Ball: Europe’s Top 10 Set-Play Specialists

Few aspects of football offer as much potential for controlled creativity as the set play. Corners, free-kicks and wide deliveries give teams a rare moment to choreograph chaos, a chance to manipulate time, space and anticipation. In the margins where elite matches are decided, set-play proficiency can be the difference between a draw and a famous victory.

In this analysis, we dive deep into Hudl StatsBombs data, covering the top five European leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1) across the 2023–24, 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons. This article identifies the most effective set-play specialists, players whose deliveries most consistently translate into chances and goals.

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Definitions

- SP Assists per 90: Actual assists originating from set plays

- SP Key Passes per 90: Passes leading directly to a shot from a set play

- SP xG Assisted per 90: The expected goals value of those shot-creating passes

Players referenced in this article have appeared in at least 1,200 league minutes across the studied period.

Top 10 Set-Play Creators (xG Assisted per 90)

Our first visual highlights the players who most consistently create high-quality chances from dead-ball situations.

At the top of the list is Nicolas Viola, whose precise left foot was a major creative weapon for Cagliari in recent seasons. His 0.145 xG Assisted per 90 is not only the highest in the dataset but also a testament to his ability to generate dangerous chances from corners and free-kicks, even in a side often forced to defend deep.

Interestingly Nicolas Viola is currently without a club having left Cagliari at the end of last season. Although he is 36 years of age he could be a really valuable recruit for a team looking to improve their output from set plays.

Nicolas Viola taking a corner for Cagliari

Set-Play Creativity — Quality vs Volume

This scatter plot below maps each player’s key passes per 90 against their xG Assisted per 90, illustrating not only who delivers the greatest volume of chances, but also who produces the highest-quality opportunities.

Kevin Stöger emerges as a prolific creator, consistently by regularly generating chances from corners and free-kicks, while Nicolas Viola once again stands out, combining exceptional chance quality with impressive frequency of chances from his deliveries.

Player Profiles: Europe’s Top 10 Set-Play Specialists

🇮🇹 Nicolas Viola

· Age: 36

· Club: Cagliari (Free agent as of July 2025)

· Foot: Left

· Position: Attacking Midfielder

🇪🇸 Edu Expósito

· Age: 29

· Club: RCD Espanyol

· Foot: Right

· Position: Central Midfielder

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 James Ward-Prowse

· Age: 31

· Club: West Ham United

· Foot: Right

· Position: Central Midfielder

🇩🇪 Jan-Niklas Beste

· Age: 26

· Club: SC Freiburg

· Foot: Left

· Position: Right Winger

🇹🇷 Hakan Çalhanoğlu

· Age: 31

· Club: Inter Milan

· Foot: Right

· Position: Defensive Midfielder

🇫🇷 Rémi Oudin

· Age: 28

· Club: US Catanzaro

· Foot: Left

· Position: Attacking Midfielder

🇦🇹 Kevin Stöger

· Age: 32

· Club: Borussia Mönchengladbach

· Foot: Left

· Position: Attacking Midfielder

🇫🇷 Yanis Zouaoui

· Age: 27

· Club: Le Havre AC

· Foot: Left

· Position: Left-Back

🇧🇷 Leonardo Weschenfelder-Scienza

· Age: 27

· Club: Southampton FC

· Foot: Both

· Position: Left Winger

🇭🇷 Josip Juranović

· Age: 30

· Club: 1. FC Union Berlin

· Foot: Right

· Position: Right-Back

Conclusion

The art of the dead ball is very much alive and more refined than ever.

At its core, success still comes down to practice and repetition. The world’s best set-piece teams treat set play routines like choreography; rehearsed, reviewed, and repeated until timing and execution become instinctive.

Building on that foundation, many clubs are now turning to set-play specialist coaches. These experts design, teach, and evolve routines with the same focus that attacking or defensive coaches bring to open play. Their work ensures that every movement, block, and delivery is part of a structured, repeatable process that maximizes the smallest of advantages.

Technology and data are pushing this discipline even further. Ball-tracking systems and performance analytics allow coaches to study delivery accuracy, spin rate, and trajectory in microscopic detail, while event and tracking data help analysts model which types of deliveries yield the highest-value chances against specific defensive setups.

The next generation of set-play mastery will blend practice, coaching expertise, and data-driven insight. Those who combine human precision with scientific understanding will continue to find opportunity and control in football’s most structured chaos: the dead ball.