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Best free kick taker in the PL era?

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posted on 25/2/23

Not saying he was the best but I randomly remembered Laurent Robert the other day. Scored some screamers.

As did Alex at Chelsea, Riise, Payet, Le Tinfoil...

posted on 25/2/23

I know the stats for most free kick goals but can anyone point us to "goals / attempts"? I guess that would give us some indication of deadliness from free kicks vs taking a lot of them.

The other criterion would be range of techniques.

posted on 25/2/23

Not really a controversial opinion. Isn’t he close to breaking Beckhams record for the number of freekicks scored in the prem? I think he only needs ine or two more.

posted on 25/2/23

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 minute ago
I know the stats for most free kick goals but can anyone point us to "goals / attempts"? I guess that would give us some indication of deadliness from free kicks vs taking a lot of them.

The other criterion would be range of techniques.
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And distance.

posted on 25/2/23

Ian Harte was good on FK’s

posted on 25/2/23

When Beckham stepped up, you expected him to score.

In big games as well.

Beckham for me

posted on 25/2/23

comment by 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (U9094)
posted 20 minutes ago
Not really a controversial opinion. Isn’t he close to breaking Beckhams record for the number of freekicks scored in the prem? I think he only needs ine or two more.
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I think Beckham's on 18, JWP 17 or something like that.

posted on 25/2/23

How do Ward Prowse and Beckhams assists stats compare?

comment by Neo (U9135)

posted on 25/2/23

Technique wise JWP for me, then probably Beckham not far after.

Been some other great takers who have had rockets in them power wise but fairly inconsistent.

posted on 25/2/23

Feels like Le Tissier was good at them though maybe most were just long range goals not FKs

Best pen record of all time though is Le Tissier surely?

posted on 25/2/23

comment by I ❤️ FRDD (U22942)
posted 4 minutes ago
How do Ward Prowse and Beckhams assists stats compare?
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Not sure that would prove much, playing for a struggling Southampton (with donkeys like Che Adams up top) vs prime attacking Man U … unless JWP’s were higher.

posted on 25/2/23

Jwp is probably equal to Beck's but Beck's had that xfactor about him where you expected a goal for club and country

posted on 25/2/23

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/02/most-free-kick-goals-premier-league/#:~:text=Arguably%20the%20skill%20that%20Beckham,in%20nine%20Premier%20League%20seasons.

posted on 25/2/23

The fact Franco zola notched 12 pl free kicks is impressive though

posted on 25/2/23

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 25 minutes ago
I know the stats for most free kick goals but can anyone point us to "goals / attempts"? I guess that would give us some indication of deadliness from free kicks vs taking a lot of them.

The other criterion would be range of techniques.
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...so in the spirit of trying to approach the OP empirically, I couldn't find stats for goals vs attempts going back as far as Beckham's time. They do record that now, and JWP compares favourably with his contemporaries not just in number of free kicks scored, but % of attempts scored.

A more crude measure of comparison between Ward-Prowse and Beckham is length of time period compared. Beckham scored his 18 PL goals in 265 appearances. JWP scored his 17 in 328 appearances, which might imply he has had more attempts. By the way, Beckham registered a total of 32 direct free kick league goals across his career in the PL, Spain, Italy and MLS.

posted on 25/2/23

JWP has comfortably better % scored than Messi, by the way

posted on 25/2/23

Becks, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo-those three with their iconic stands over the free kicks made you sit up. Although Ronaldo’s record is awful, the other two were pretty good.
In terms of pure technique, JWP is the best after Juninho for all time. JWP can strike them from any distance with any technique.

posted on 25/2/23

Yaya Toure was up there with the best.

posted on 25/2/23

i love that rogerio ceni is in the top ten with 60+ fk goals

posted on 25/2/23

comment by Dave The Jackal (U22179)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by I ❤️ FRDD (U22942)
posted 4 minutes ago
How do Ward Prowse and Beckhams assists stats compare?
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Not sure that would prove much, playing for a struggling Southampton (with donkeys like Che Adams up top) vs prime attacking Man U … unless JWP’s were higher.
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No different to saying you'd have to share freekick duties when playing with better players.

posted on 25/2/23

Jwp freekicks ain't nothing nice to look at but he is consistent with them.
Beckham had way more curl on the ball and it just looked so much nicer but yeah.
Decent goal scorer from freekicks

posted on 25/2/23

It's hard to know. On raw stats, Beckham got his tally in less appearances, but then United were the best team in England at the time so he likely got more opportunities.

JWP's strike rate also seems to have improved in the last 2 or 3 years. Without having the stats to hand it feels like a large proportion of his have come in that time period. So if we take now as his peak in terms of free kick taking ability, that MAY be higher than Becks but it's taken him longer to get there.

Beckham was also a terrific assister from set pieces too, I don't think JWP is at that level in that regard.

posted on 25/2/23

comment by I ❤️ FRDD (U22942)
posted 13 minutes ago
comment by Dave The Jackal (U22179)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by I ❤️ FRDD (U22942)
posted 4 minutes ago
How do Ward Prowse and Beckhams assists stats compare?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Not sure that would prove much, playing for a struggling Southampton (with donkeys like Che Adams up top) vs prime attacking Man U … unless JWP’s were higher.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

No different to saying you'd have to share freekick duties when playing with better players.
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Eh, only if that’s what actually happened in the case of Becks … but it didn’t. Don’t recall him regularly having to share free kick duties, if it was remotely on his favoured side.

posted on 25/2/23

Beckham by a distance

posted on 25/2/23

comment by merrysupersteve (relaxed about the situation) (U1132)
posted 3 minutes ago

JWP's strike rate also seems to have improved in the last 2 or 3 years. Without having the stats to hand it feels like a large proportion of his have come in that time period.
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Same is true of Beckham: he scored none in his first 48 games, but 9 in his last two seasons at United. Likely he'd have continued at that higher rate had he stayed (as evidenced by notching up more at Real, where I'd guess he was sharing some of the free kicks with the likes of ZZ and Roberto Carlos).

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