There isn’t a better set-piece taker in world football than James Ward-Prowse, who underlined his importance to West Ham with the winner at Tottenham on Thursday night.
He has what I describe as the three Ps: posture, practice and positive mindset.
The first advantage the West Ham maestro has is genetic, his posture. Just like the all-time free-kick greats David Beckham and Andrea Pirlo, he has those 10-to-two feet that stick out and allow him to get extra whip and bend on the ball.
That phrase, ‘10-to-two feet’, might sound simplistic but it’s widely used among players and sports scientists because those biomechanics are important.
The angle of approach Ward-Prowse takes at set-plays would be impossible for most other players to replicate, hence he gets this incredible dip on the ball. John Barnes and Steven Gerrard were the same. I had a similar body shape where I found it easy to sidefoot the ball with power which made me dangerous at set-pieces. Beckham’s posture was so exaggerated, his feet were more like quarter-to-three when he addressed the ball.
There isn’t a better set-piece taker in world football than West Ham’s James Ward-Prowse
In his performances, Ward Prowse has the three Ps: posture, practice and a positive mindset
Having the technique is only half the battle. You have to hone it through lots and lots of practice, which Ward-Prowse has clearly done to become this good.
I imagine in his early days at Southampton, he would have practised set-pieces three or four times a week after training, 30 or 50 free-kicks each time until the coaches called him in fearing burn-out. Beckham would stay out at the end of every England session and he was already a superstar. I sometimes joined him but had to accept some things he could do with a ball, I couldn’t. He was incredible with his delivery.
The final piece in the jigsaw is a positive mindset. It might surprise fans but many players don’t want the pressure of taking an important set-piece. If you hit the first man, you know the moans and groans are coming. I wanted to take every one and Ward-Prowse has that same belief.
He rarely hits a bad one but when he does, he’s right over to take the next one. It’s why he has five league assists already this season, four from deadballs, and his total of 17 goals from free-kicks is only one behind Beckham’s Premier League record.
He has scored more than double of any other current top-flight players, with Christian Eriksen and James Maddison on eight. A huge part of David Moyes’s desire to sign him last summer was his ability at set-plays. It’s been a weapon used by Moyes since his Everton days.
Ward-Prowse is durable, a good passer, reliable in his defensive duties and as fit as a fiddle. But those crosses are the X-factor. He’s built up a great rapport with heading specialist Tomas Soucek, similar to how I used Sami Hyypia as an aerial target at Liverpool.
It’s not that Ward-Prowse will always aim it directly to Soucek but he will signal to team-mates which zone he’s trying to find, and the Czech will invariably make the run to get on the end of it.
Ward-Prowse does everything well in midfield, a lovely balance of the creative and destructive. It doesn’t make any sense that he isn’t in the England squad, but I’m sure West Ham fans are just delighted he’s the first name on Moyes’s team sheet.
Ward-Prowse does everything well in midfield, and it is nonsense he isn’t in the England squad
