Eric Ten Hag is under pressure after Manchester United’s bad start to the season. That pressure could get turned up to eleven if United concedes an early goal in its next game against Brentford.

Unfortunately for Ten Hag, Brentford has scored in the first two minutes of its last four games. Behind this incredible statistic is a tactical trend perfected by Brentford this season – using kick-offs as a set piece.

With soccer matches often decided by a single goal, set-piece routines can easily be the difference between winning and losing. Teams will employ specialist throw-in coaches to help give them an edge, and will practice free kick and corner routines.

Brentford has focused on set-pieces for years, and has scored more set piece goals than any team other than Arsenal between 2021 and the end of the 2023/24 season. But the kick-off itself is also a set piece situation, and one that Thomas Frank’s team is using to its advantage.

The Bees’ approach to kick-offs is to use them to put the opposition under pressure straight away deep in the opposition’s half of the pitch. Brentford pass the ball back to goalkeeper Mark Flekken, who hits the ball long to a target of usually two tall players such as defender Kristoffer Ajer, who are positioned on one side of the pitch. Several other Brentford players essentially man-mark the opposition players nearby to give Brentford the best chance of winning the second ball. From there, Brentford’s players try to get the ball out to one of the wings, before crossing it into the penalty area to create a goalscoring opportunity.

This differs from regular kick-offs as it sees a tall central defender get forward early and it risks losing possession for a gain in territory, unlike most teams who start the match by passing the ball backwards and retaining possession.

The kick-off routine is more effective than a goal kick because Flekken can start from higher up the pitch, meaning he can more accurately pick out his target. The opposition is already pinned back inside its own half, which puts them on the defensive. And as the kick-off happens right at the start of games, it can catch the opposition off guard.

Brentford’s goal against West Ham United saw defender Ethan Pinnock, rather than the goalkeeper, play the long ball, this time at a different angle, but the general tactics behind it stayed the same.

Brentford’s opponents are now aware of this kick-off tactic. So is there anything they can do to stop it?

One way would be to win the coin toss and choose to take the kick-off instead, though having kick-off didn’t stop Wolverhampton Wanderers from conceding an early goal to Brentford in the previous round of games. Wolves actually employed a similar tactic to Brentford but didn’t execute it well enough.

Another way would be to look at the opening goal in the Carabao Cup match between Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United.

Forest tried a similar tactic to Brentford in that match, and it resulted in an early goal, but not the way Forest would’ve wanted.

With the kick-off tactic relying on overloading one side of the pitch, if the defending team can win possession, all it has to do is get the ball to the other side of the pitch to create an opportunity to counterattack.

Newcastle surrounded the target of Forest’s long ball, Taiwo Awoniyi, with three players and managed to win possession by one of these players breaking away from Awoniyi and becoming free to receive the header from his teammate.

Newcastle then quickly passed the ball to Sandro Tonali who was in space as Forest had committed players to support Awoniyi. Two passes later and striker Alexander Isak was through on goal with several other Newcastle players in support, including Joe Willock who tapped in the rebound after Isak’s shot was saved.

Part of Newcastle’s success was down to Forest having not perfected the kick-off routine, particularly the man-marking element crucial to winning the second ball. That’s partly because in that game Forest played with a back-three instead of sending an extra defender forward.

But it shows two ways to stop Brentford’s kick-off tactic. First, make sure you win the first ball, and if that isn’t possible, foul the opposition player so you can reset your defense. Second, keep players on the half-way line to allow you to counterattack.

Teams have been studying Brentford’s kick-off routines and have likely figured out ways to stop them, so if Brentford does get to kick off the match against Manchester United, don’t be surprised if the Bees try something completely different.