Who is Arsenal's set piece coach? Nicolás Jover is named “the most annoying guy in football”, but he has turned the Gunners into “kings of the corners”

Arsenal underlined their status as set-piece kings by scoring two more goals from corners to beat Manchester United in midweek.

The Gunners' corner tactics have become One of the unlikely talking points of the club's season. and Nicolás Jover is responsible.

Mikel ArtetaThe team scored their sixth and seventh set-piece goals of the season, leading the Premier League in a 2-0 victory over United.

Arsenal They were nicknamed the 'new ones' Stoke City', and the legend of Old Trafford Gary Neville He personally called Jover “the most annoying guy in football.”

The German-born French coach is never far from the celebrations every time the North Londoners convert another set piece.

Arsenal have scored 22 goals from corners since the start of the 2023/24 season, seven more than the next highest in the Premier League.

The Emirates side are at least five ahead of any other team in the top five European leagues in set-piece goals (excluding penalties).

Who is Arsenal's set piece coach?

Jover followed Arteta to Arsenal in the summer of 2021 after having worked together in city ​​of manchester low pep guardiola.

The season before his arrival, the Gunners were 18th in the Premier League for set-piece goals, scoring only more than Fulham and Sheffield United of such situations.

It was Arteta who originally pushed for Jover to join City in 2019 during his time as Guardiola's assistant.

Jover impressed in a similar role in Brentford at the time, which was his first position in England.

The 43-year-old got his start in professional football as an analyst, an interest he developed while studying sports in Canada.

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Jover was influenced by the NFL at the University of Sherbrooke and his first routines came for his team, according to the times.

He worked as a technical director for an amateur club in Quebec before returning to France to become a video analyst in Montpellier.

Jover did similar work for the Croatian national team, but was looking to specialize in set pieces when Brentford came calling.

Dean Smithwho was in charge of the Bees at the time, said the guardian: “I really liked what I saw and heard in our interview.

“He had a very good personality and the way he presented everything to the players helped them accept what he wanted very quickly. “Everyone liked him and wanted to do things for him.”

In Jover's three seasons at Brentford under Smith and Thomas Frankthe Bees scored 46 goals from set pieces.

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His influence was so great that Gareth Southgate sent assistants to the club's training ground to help develop England's set pieces in 2018.

At the World Cup that year, The Three Lions became corner specialists. with four direct goals during their way to the semifinals.

Jover's Brentford colleague Bernardo Cueva was poached by Chelsea Earlier this year, such has been his success at the highest level.

Man City scored 30 times from set pieces during Jover's two seasons at the Etihad Stadium before Arteta snapped him up and moved him to north London.

What have you done at Arsenal?

After adding Jover to his Gunners squad, Arteta said: “I thought we needed someone who specialized in that (set pieces).

“I met him, we started discussing how we could apply set pieces to open play, which is also connected. They are not two separate things, everything is connected in the game, and how we could maximize that.

“I knew Nico from before and asked him to come and join our project, and he is having a very strong impact on the team.”

Jover was the mastermind behind Arsenal's dark arts both from the corners and the routines themselves.

This included Ben White untying one of Guglielmo Vicario's gloves to distract him from a corner in the 3-2 win over Tottenham.

Jover was also credited with Declan Rice's transformation into a set-piece specialist, having taken just three corners in his first 20 Premier League games for Arsenal following his arrival from West Ham.

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Rice now has the most assists from set pieces since the start of last season with seven, level with his England friend. Bukayo Saka.

An important element of Arsenal's corner routines is delivery, with the Three Lions pair exceptional dead-ball catchers.

More than 95 percent of Arsenal's cross-field corners are inswingers, and their percentage of short corners is the lowest in the division.

Certain plays are designed around specific opponents, but most involve a multitude of bodies filling the six-yard box.

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This group of players then rushes towards the central areas when one of Rice or Saka takes a swinger.

Their presence means the other team needs to mark them, zonally or man-to-man, which inadvertently puts pressure on the goalkeeper, while moving out of their group to define areas of the box can cause confusion for opposing players.

Gabriel's heading ability means he is the usual target and it is the Arsenal teammates around him who are tasked with creating space for him.

The Brazilian's ability to receive crosses should not be discounted either: his 11 first contacts in attacking corners are a Premier League record.

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What has been said?

“I dream of developing a recognizable style of set pieces, like a style of play,” Jover told Christoph Biermann in his book Football Hackers: The Science and Art of a Data Revolution.

On Arsenal being king of the Premier League corners, Arteta said: “We want to be the kings of everything: in set pieces, the best in the world, in high pressing, the best in the world, attacking open spaces , the best in the field.” world.”

Arsenal's 22 corner goals since the start of last season represent 25.2% of their 119 Premier League goals.

For comparison, Stoke's 81 set-piece goals out of a total of 188 in the Premier League under their former manager Tony Pulis It was 43.1%, which led to Roberto Martínez's 'new Stoke' label.

Arteta added: “I understand very well what Roberto said, it was in the best possible way so we will take it as a great compliment because they were very good at it.”

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However, at Jover, Neville stated during The Overlap's observation: “He has to be the most annoying guy in football, Arsenal's set-piece coach. It has to be, right? It has to be, right?

Former Liverpool advocate Jamie Carragher And he added: “I'll tell you what, give him what he wants.

“If you were that Arsenal set-piece coach, you could draw up your own contract, couldn't you? You couldn't get rid of it.

“You know, if he said, 'I want 25 grand a week,' you'd have to give it to him, right?”