After the Barcelona friendly, Chris Davies said he was hoping for ‘six, seven, eight’ more goals from Blues at set-pieces this season.
The conversation evolved from the fact that Jhon Solis’ equaliser in the 2-2 draw came from a dead ball situation and Blues exploited the weapons they have.
The club’s first designated set-piece coach, Scott Fry, has been given plenty of leeway to drill the players in pre-season.
And it showed, in the last warm-up match, when Blues were fine-tuning their repertoire.
There were a variety of routines to be seen.
Solis’ goals came from a central free-kick, clipped towards a cluster of royal blue to the left of the Barcelona box, by Alex Cochrane*.
Christoph Klarer headed it back towards the penalty spot where Solis had veered to and the Colombian ushered the ball in.
Barcelona’s defending and marking left a lot to be desired, it has to be said. They had not long made seven substitutions before it, too.
But, still, Blues will be heartened by a plan that came off.
Davies commented: “I said to the players early in the week that it will pay off, the extra time (we are devoting to them) because we are spending more than usual working on set-pieces.
“We have to score, you know, six, seven, eight more goals from set-pieces at least this season.
“That one was from a wide/deep free-kick but it was well executed and it will give us confidence.
“We are a little bigger as a team than we were last season.
“We had a few (opportunities). There was one, Tomoki Iwata had a header that the ‘keeper saved in the first-half. We looked a bit of a handful from some of our deeper free-kicks.
“So, yes, we have been working hard on it and I’m really pleased we got a goal.”
Blues record at corners wasn’t that bad, actually, in 2025/26, when Ben Petty and Jonathan Grounds led on the organisation. But with Fry on board, improvement is expected.
In the immediate run-up to the Solis equaliser, Blues tested Barcelona with a succession of set-pieces, all of which kept them guessing.
From a corner, Blues strung out a line of five players across the six-yard box.
Then from a Cochrane long throw, they positioned three players shoulder to shoulder at the near post, blocking off the goalkeeper; Solis was left completely free and almost got on the end of a flick as the defenders scrambled.
Blues got another free-kick almost immediately and another excellent Cochrane delivery just eluded a line of attacking runners. Next up, the goal arrived.
An interesting variation was conjured up next, after Blues earned a free-kick in a central position, some 30 yards from goal. Whether it was by design or instinctive, I don’t know, but it caused an issue.
Cochrane stabbed his foot under the ball to scoop dink it over the wall to the onrushing August Priske, who angled a diagonal run behind the defensive line.
It almost caught Barcelona out, as the ball then popped to the right to Carlos Vicente in a threatening position, close towards the post.
In the first-half, at the opening defensive corner, Davies stepped back from pitchside and sat down, allowing Fry to come forward and have the freedom of technical area, as if to say ‘stage is all yours, son’.
Klarer, Phil Neumann and Priske looked to be marking zonally along the six-yard box, the others went man to man.
At the first attacking corner, Blues had Klarer and Neumann as screeners of the goalkeeper next to one another, and Jay Stansfield lurking round the back to try and take advantage.
And there was a funky set-up for another corner in the opening period (bear with me here . . ).
Three players crowded the goalkeeper, two hung back a bit to attack the ball, running from the middle of the area. And there was a flanking Blues player standing halfway along the white line of the 18-yard box on the left and right. Different.
Another noticeable factor was the threat Blues had from deep free-kicks, pumped towards a crowd of bodies by James Beadle in Blues own half, as Davies referenced. Blues don’t spare bodies forward on these. It’s like they almost stock up on all the 6ft plus players to invade the opposition box, as a sign of intent.
From one, which Barcelona admittedly let bounce and go all the way through (maybe the crowd and set-up caused such indecision?), Iwata got to it and forced a decent tip-over save by Wojciech Szczesny.
Undoubtedly, Blues have become very creative and active at set-plays. Fry’s influence has had an effect already. There’s always something happening, movement, players on the go and causing issues or distractions away from the flight of the ball.
Blues, as a team, have certainly got a lot bigger, too. There are some units in there now – Klarer 6ft 3in, Neumann 6ft 3in, Dael Fry 6ft 4in, Kristoffer Lund 6ft, Solis 6ft 2in, Priske 6ft 3in, Luis Vazquez 6ft 2in, Marvin Ducksch 6ft 2in, Stansfield 6ft 1in, plus a 6ft 7in ‘keeper in Beadle.
If this season Blues don’t show an uptick in how much of a threat they are, how they defend their own airspace and the important commodity – goals – then it won’t be for a lack of trying.
* Cochrane’s delivery was outstanding all night against Barcelona. And it was his cross in open play from which Priske scored. Who needs Kai Wagner, eh?
