Further research shows that in the 13/14 season 39 direct free-kick goals were scored!

Trent has been out for a lot of the season and he’s great for a free kick goal.

comment by Never Mind the Defending: Here’s Jü... (U3979)
posted 4 seconds ago
Trent has been out for a lot of the season and he’s great for a free kick goal.
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Scored 2 in 4 seasons according to the Premier League stats. That is the same as he scored in the 19/20 season, so a sure decline.

Interesting, given how Arsenal have been doing very well on set pieces. But a lot of the times, especially with Arsenal it feels like even with direct FK, they prefer the option to float the ball in. Maybe statistically this creates more goal scoring opportunities?

Prior to the last few games we've had I don't think we've had many direct freekicks this season which have been in a decent shooting position

Can only imagine that stats wise direct freekick goals are low xG so players are instructed not to go for them as often.

comment by Loco Liverpool (U18018)
posted 2 minutes ago
Can only imagine that stats wise direct freekick goals are low xG so players are instructed not to go for them as often.
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Maybe, but I can't imagine JWP being told not to go for them. Maybe the science behind defending them has got to a level that defences set up better and make it so much harder?

Unless there are a lot fewer for the next few seasons then yeah no reason to think it's not simply a blip. It's like when Anelka was the top scorer having got under 20 league goals. That was also a blip from what is the standard. Or the top scorer getting over 30 goals. It doesn't often happen.

Conversely, the percentage of penalties scored is higher than recent norm.

Only 9 misses from 92 taken - 83 scored = 90%
Previous seasons:
21/22, 18% were missed. (19 of 103 taken)
20/21, 18% were missed (23 of 125 taken)
19/20, 22% were missed (20 of 92 taken)
18/19, 18% were missed (19 of 103 taken)

I'm sure players in general are shooting less from distance due to the inefficiency of it so this will probably include direct free kicks as well. If the stats show that putting the ball into a dangerous area will get you more goals than shooting then teams will do that.

It's a shame as everyone loves a goal from distance, not much beats a strike from 25+ yards that continues to rise until it hits the top corner of the net.

Shooting from distance is a real thing we need to practise on. We are not very good at it.

Be interested to see who was banging them in, in 2014.

Top 3 you should be able to have a good guess at.

Suarez?

Yes.

Tie second.

Payet?

Wait, when was Payet at WHU?

David Silva?

Yaya Toure maybe, not Silva.

Ok that's 4 guesses.

Put me out of my misery.

Negative on Payet, he was a year later.
Negative on Silva. He didn't score many.

Bit more obvious imo.

Yaya was #1, Rooney tied with Suarez at #2

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/att_freekick_goal

Didn't even consider a United player once I ruled Beckham out .

Only 4 to win it.

I guess it wasn't that great an art anyway.