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Andreas Georgson is all set to join United as their new set-piece coach with the Red Devils triggering the buyout clause in his contract as manager of Lillestrom.
United will need to part ways with £280,000 as compensation to the Norwegian club, however they feel this is worth the money for his exceptional talent.
Georgson already has links to the senior staff at Old Trafford, having been recruited by Jason Wilcox whilst Wilcox was the director of football at Southampton. His work focussing on set-pieces at Brentford, Arsenal and Southampton has given him an excellent understanding of the importance of set-pieces.
Speaking of his former colleague, Wilcox labelled the Swedish coach an “expert in what he does”, feeling that the 42-year-old truly understands the game model being built at Old Trafford.
To really understand the impact that Georgson could have at United, lets take a look at his time a Southampton and how he transformed the shortest team in the Championship at the time, into the best with set-pieces.
What was Georgson faced with joining Southampton?
The 2022/23 Premier League season was absolutely shocking for Southampton, ultimately leading to their relegation. The club entered the relegation zone on matchday 11 after a run of five straight loses with Wolves (eighteenth place), Brentford (eighth place), Aston Villa (thirteenth place), Everton (fifteenth place) and Manchester City (second place) all taking victories.
Draws to West Ham and Arsenal, with a win over Bournemouth were enough to get the Saints out of the relegation zone before a 1-0 loss to twelfth place Crystal Palace dropped Southampton back into the relegation zone with the club being bottom of the table for 20 fixtures out of the 38.
By the end of the season, the Saints had conceded a total of 73 goals, with a goal difference of -37, with only 25 points all season with six wins and seven draws. Of these goals, 13 were conceded from set pieces which made Southampton the second worst team in the Premier League to this stat. Across the entire season, the club had only managed to score six headers and three direct free kicks in 38 games.
Georgson joined the Saints on 4th August 2023, the opening day of the 2023/24 Championship season where Southampton beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1. Despite the victory, Sheffield’s goal came from a corner, marking yet another goal conceded from a set piece.
What were the results of Georgson’s work?
By the end of the 2023/24 season, Southampton were promoted back to the Premier League, having been in promotion play-off places for 38 fixtures out of 46, conceding 63 goals, with only 7 of them from set-pieces, the best record in the league.
On the attack, the Saints scored 87 goals, giving them a +14 goal difference, with 14 of the goals coming from set-pieces even though the Southampton squad were technically the second shortest in the division.
How does he achieve such a drastic change?
Georgson’s tactics when it comes to set-pieces is to use a mixed strategy of zonal play and man marking. By doing this you can defend or attack areas by pressuring weaknesses in the opposition as well as resisting their strongest players.
When looking at attacking corners, Georgson regularly uses the second man ready to receive a short ball to then cross into the box. This creates a threat of a short corner, drawing out one of the defenders from the box to cover the second man. Alongside this, decoy runs are set up to lose players and create even more space, with flick-ons practiced in the chaos to support tap in goals.
His main technique has been to use five men in the box, with three on the back of the six-yard box and two perfectly in the centre. Alongside these men in the box, three players take position around the edge of the penalty box in order to win possession back quickly if the ball is headed clear or to receive the ball from a short corner.
The two players in the centre of the six yard box have one main task, to attach themselves to the zonal defenders and then make decoy runs to the front of the box, pulling the zonal defenders away from the middle of the box, this being the target area. This also allows for these tow players to flick the ball on to the back of the six year box if the cross comes up short, or to intentionally play this move if the zonal pressure is too heavy.
This technique of attaching a man to a zonal defender almost forces the defender to switch into man-marking by making them feel that attacker is their responsibility. The decoy run then pulls this man-marking zonal defender away from the zone they were defending, disrupting their sole purpose in the set-piece.
Georgson has also been known to encourage touch-tight movement, whereby the attackers at he back of the six-yard box bunch tight together, then when moving pass by exceptionally close. This allows for one of the attacking players to move at the defenders, taking their attention, while another attacker moves behind them, forcing the other defenders to move around the blocking attacker. This move prevents the defender from moving side by side with all of the attackers, again, creating more space in the target area.
By overloading the six yard box, it forces the defenders into the goal space as well which works in two ways; it creates more chaos for flick-ons with such a densely populated area causing vulnerability to react, plus it opens the edge of the box up to allow for more time for a longer range shot from the men on the edge of the box if the ball is headed clear.
In wide freekick situations the same tactic as above with corners is used with the ball coming from a very similar position.
In the dying moments of games if a win or draw is vital and the team are behind, Georgson utilises the goalkeeper on the attack. Whilst this may look like a move of desperation, like all of his decisions, it’s highly tactical. Bringing the goalkeeper into the box creates another target man at the front of box, but also another threat for the defenders to worry about. With the tight movement as well, this also generates more space.
A perfect example of this was against Preston North End in the early fixtures of last seasons Championship. Fifth place Southampton were 2-1 down in extra time to fourth place Preston and a corner was awarded. Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu raced up for the corner, came front post, get his head on the ball flicking it back to the target area, which ultimately ended up deflecting off of Ched Evans and going down as an own goal. Either way, the score was 2-2 thanks to the use of the goalkeeper in such a vital corner.
What this means for United
In the 2023/24 season, United conceded the third most corners in the league, with over 40% of their defending corners resulting in a shot.
On the attack, of the 57 goals scored, only eight of them were from headers, with two being from corners.
With set-pieces being such a massive part of today’s game, these stat are incredibly poor for such a top tier club. By utilising Georgson’s tactics, the Red Devils can become much more clinical in front of goal as well as reverse engineering the tactics to be more prepared when defending spot kicks.
Looking at how some of the United squad can fit into this you can clearly see the potential a system like this has at Old Trafford.
New signing Joshua Zirkzee is an absolute man mountain, towering at 6’4”, making him a great use as a central decoy runner to knock the ball to the back, or to be at the back as a target man. Players like Alejandro Garnacho and Diogo Dalot are well adept to supplying the ball in so could stack up as the short pass options. Then players like Bruno Fernandes we’ve seen convert long range efforts so could be clinical on the edge of the box with a bit more time.
It’s fair to say that Georgson’s track record and tactical mind make him very deserving of the opportunity to join Old Trafford. Whether he deploys the same tactics as he did at Southampton remains to be seen, but United can definitely benefit from his expertise in set-pieces this coming season.
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