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PES 2021 Set Pieces Guide

Learn set pieces in PES 2021, scoring and defending free kicks and corners, placing penalty kicks, and building routines that turn dead balls into goals.

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Dead balls decide tight matches. When open play produces two locked defences, the corner, the free kick, and the penalty are the scheduled opportunities to break PES 2021 open, and teams that practise them steal goals their general play never earned.

This guide covers both sides of the dead ball: how to score them, and how to stop conceding the soft ones that undo ninety minutes of defensive discipline in five seconds.

Set pieces sit inside the wider PES 2021 dead ball guide picture as the game's most coachable moments, because the ball is still and the plan can actually be rehearsed.

Corners That Create Chances

A corner is a delivery choice before it is anything else: near post flick, far post power, or the short routine that changes the angle entirely. Choose based on your best headers of the ball and where they are standing, not on habit. The same delivery to the same spot is a scouting gift by the third repetition.

Vary the taker and the trajectory together. An inswinger attacks the goalkeeper's courage; an outswinger attacks the defender's ability to head moving backwards. Both cannot be defended by the same setup, which is precisely why variety is the whole strategy.

Defending Corners

Conceded corner goals are usually organisational, not physical: a free runner nobody owned, a goalkeeper pinned by traffic nobody cleared, a near post nobody guarded. Assign the near post, claim your men early, and attack the ball rather than wrestling the man, because referees punish wrestling exactly when the cross is best.

Keep one player upfield even when losing the aerial battle feels desperate. An outlet forces the attacking team to keep two men back, which is two fewer bodies in your box, and turns your clearance into a counter attack instead of an invitation for the next cross. how keepers organise against set pieces explains the keeper's half of this organisation.

Free Kicks In Scoring Range

Scoring free kicks are a negotiation with the wall and the goalkeeper's position. Aim first at the side the keeper has left, because walls are built to cover the other. Power beats placement only when the keeper is genuinely unsighted; everywhere else, the corner of the goal reached accurately outscores the net bulge attempted heroically. It is one of the details that separates PES 2021 from arcade football, and it is learnable with deliberate practice.

Disguise is learnable: the same run up for the curled and the driven effort keeps the keeper honest until the ball moves. Practise two strikes with one approach and you own a weapon; practise five strikes and you own a warm up routine.

Free Kicks From Deep

Deep free kicks are restarts, not lottery tickets. The professional uses are a diagonal that turns the defence, a quick release that catches it asleep, or calm possession that resets a spell of pressure. Launching every one into a crowded box surrenders the ball at the exact moments your team most needs to keep it.

Save one rehearsed exception: the free kick launched early, before the defence sets, toward your fastest runner. It works precisely because your other nine deep free kicks were patient, and the defence relaxed into expecting the tenth to be the same.

Penalties Placed, Not Blasted

A penalty is a psychology exam with a ball. Pick your corner before the run up and do not change it for the keeper's movement; most missed penalties are changed minds, not bad techniques. Side netting pace is unnecessary: a firm pass into the corner beats a blast that clears the bar while impressing nobody.

As the keeper, the reverse logic applies: study the taker's habit if you know it, commit fully to one side, and accept that a well placed penalty is simply a goal. Your wins come from the hesitant, the central, and the over ambitious, who appear more often than highlights suggest.

Throw Ins And The Small Margins

Throw ins are possessions, and losing them cheaply is an unforced error repeated twenty times a match. Offer the taker two options, one short and safe, one turning down the line, and receive on the move rather than flat footed, because a static receiver is a pressing trigger for the whole opposition.

Defensively, mark the short option and concede the long throw down the line, which delivers the ball to the least dangerous area with the receiver facing his own goal. Set piece thinking applies at every restart: the still ball is a plan waiting for someone to have one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Usually the same delivery against a defence that has adjusted. Vary target zone, trajectory, and taker, and put your best header where the ball is actually going. PES 2021 rewards the players who learn its systems patiently, and every guide on this site exists to shorten that learning.

Shoot when the angle and distance suit your taker and the keeper's position offers a side. A clever pass or cross beats a low percentage blast into the wall.

Guard the near post, assign every runner an owner, attack the ball instead of wrestling, and keep an outlet upfield to thin the crowd.

Choose the corner early, strike firmly into it, and never change your mind during the run up. Placement and commitment beat raw power.

Conclusion

Set pieces are the rehearsed part of an improvised game, which is why prepared players profit from them so reliably. Variety in delivery, organisation in defence, and commitment from the penalty spot are all learnable in training. That is the enduring appeal of PES 2021: systems simple to start and deep enough to study for years.

Give dead balls the practice time their goal share deserves. In the tight matches that define seasons, they are not a bonus; they are the plan.

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Karim Benali

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Karim Benali

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Karim reviews football games on Android, testing controls, match engines, and career modes on real devices before any title is listed here.

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