Player Analysis: Sergio Ramos – attacking set-pieces

When it comes to attacking set-pieces, Sergio Ramos is probably the best player in the world right now -along with Cristiano Ronaldo. Over the years he saved Real Madrid a lot of times with his goals from set-pieces – his most famously is definitely the 95th minute goal against Atletico Madrid back in the 2014 Champions League Final. So, we decided to take a deeper look into it in a video analysis (video link at the end of the article).

The analysis is divided into several parts:

Free-kicks -› basic strategy

-› basic strategy Corners 1st type -› dismarking technique – against man-marking 2nd type -› receiving a block – against man-marking 3rd type -› strategy against zonal-marking 4th type -› attacking near-post – against man-marking 5th type -› positioning for short corners/after rebounds – against both marking schemes 6th type -› positioning after rebounds – drop for cutback to shoot – against both marking schemes



All of Ramos’ headed shots from set-pieces, from the last 3,5 years in the La Liga. What the data shows – in correlation with the analysis – that most of his headers are between the 6 yard box-penalty spot, as he is mostly attacking that zone with his movement/positioning from depth. He had 32 shots in this period -5 goals, from 3,6 xG, which is a very good number, especially it we take the high variability of set-pieces into account.



Ronaldo’s set-pieces headers for comparison – from the last 2 seasons in Juventus. Better ratio in shots, but worse in xG to goals.

Video link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mq4cw8ek3cleo2k/Sergio%20Ramos_offensive%20set-pieces_analysis%20.mov?dl=0