How Midtjylland became hotbed for set-piece experts

Given the Danes are among Europe's most prolific coffee drinkers, chances are nearly every staff member will visit the one breakout area at FC Midtjylland's training complex several times daily.

While there, not only will they receive their caffeine hit but also a reminder of the club's most important table, which sits directly above the machine dispensing espresso after espresso.

It is not, though, the Superliga standings (which they have topped four times since 2015) but a graph showing Midtjylland's dead ball goal difference.

On Thursday they come to England - where corners and throw-ins are back in vogue - to face Nottingham Forest in the Europa League.

Set-pieces are trending in the Premier League, with Aston Villa's Austin MacPhee and Arsenal's Nicolas Jover nationally recognisable touchline prowlers whenever their team has a restart.

In summer 2024, Chelsea paid Brentford £750,000 in compensation for set-piece coach Bernardo Cueva, with Fabrizio Romano's three X posts on the move making 5.9m impressions.

Michele Aragona, who recently joined Ipswich from Midtjylland as a set-piece analyst, remembers thinking "this will shock the market".

"Chelsea really understood that, especially in the Premier League, every place can make millions of pounds worth of difference, and that's why they started to look at every possible small gain," said Aragona.

Midtjylland, though, were a decade ahead of the crowd. Set-pieces have been prominent in the club's approach since Matthew Benham bought a majority shareholding in 2014.

The common denominator in their four championship crowns, the latest of which came after Benham sold-up in 2023, has been that they have scored at least 10 more goals from set-pieces than they conceded.

A once unique approach is now being mirrored Europe-wide but, if you have heard of a set-piece specialist, there is a good chance they will have graduated from Midtjylland's pseudo-academy before landing their current role.

That their alumni are both famous and spread wide is celebrated.

"We put so much energy into it that I think it's natural that we also have some talented people [leave]," said Midtjylland's director of football Jacob Larsen.

First, there are the coaches. In the Premier League, Villa have MacPhee, while Martin Mark joined Newcastle in the same role this summer. Jover also spent some time informally at Midtjylland previously.

At national level, Mads Buttgereit is Germany's set-piece coach under Julian Nagelsmann, while Lars Knudsen now manages Denmark's Under-21 side. He spent a season coaching set-pieces at Leicester City in 2022-23.

Then there are the analysts. Carles Safont works with Manchester City's first team, while until February Marc Orti Esteban was with Brentford. He is now at New England Revolution. Jose Rodriguez Calvo joined Real Sociedad from Villa this summer.

Aragona explained to BBC Sport the role of a set-piece coach and set-piece analyst are commonly confused. They are distinct and yet inextricably linked, although where the line is drawn will vary from club to club.

"We work together in a symbiotic way," he said. "But the coach is the one delivering the meetings and the sessions on grass. I'm then going to individual players, making sure everything is correct on an individual level or taking care of opposition shadows.

"I'll show them clips and make sure everything is as realistic as possible. But other analysts might say they stay in the office."

In addition, Aragona spends his days analysing opponents and post-match footage, while he collaborates with the coach on game strategy.

Midtjylland play in Herning, a city in west Denmark with a population of 55,000, and train in Ikast, a town of about 20,000 inhabitants.

They are far from any bright lights and have had to, according to Larsen, be "innovative". That "started with talent development" he told BBC Sport, but there is also ambition. "We also want to become champions in Denmark every year."

Set-pieces quickly became Midtjylland's thing.

"When I played, [set-pieces] got the last 10 minutes of the final training session before a match," Larsen explained. "We tried two different variations and that was it.

"Now we try to put them into every training session and find creative ways to talk about how we can activate the players so that they enjoy set-pieces as much as they enjoy everything else."

But whereas the mind's eye jumps to fancy-dan routines, with elaborate dummy runs and extravagant movements, according to Aragona that is "a common misconception".

"People think, 'oh, we must create different routines for every game depending on the opponent's weakness', but that's not the case," he said. "Routines can win you games but if you want to build something consistent and to be the best over a period of years, it has to be something you can replicate."

Midtjylland's focus on set-pieces is club-wide. Rune During is responsible for them at youth level, with each age group having one coach whose remit incudes set-pieces.

"At academy level we look at each player and think 'can we give him some special advantages when it comes to set-pieces?'" Larsen said.

"Naturally, there are specific scenarios, but we are a talent development club. We want to have talked to players and tried to set them free so they can think themselves and come up with their own ideas and solutions in matches."

Naturally, the focus between defence and attack differs between clubs.

"The balance we had was around 90% attacking, 10% defending," Aragona explained of Midtjylland last season.

They lost the 2024-25 title by a point to FC Copenhagen.

"We literally never conceded chances, so our thinking was 'why do we need to put a lot of emphasis on the defensive part if everything is going right?!'"

Larsen happily admits set-pieces feature heavily in recruitment discussions. Midtjylland are heavy spenders by Danish standards - the 36.6m euros they paid for players in 2023-24 was a national record.

There is, according to Larsen, no minimum height requirement but that metric is considered alongside attributes such as heading ability, long throws and free-kick taking prowess.

However, Midtjylland play an "individual form of football" compared to their Danish peers, Larsen said.

"We play with a lot of physique and individual criteria. There are more systems at other teams, and the structure they play is more team-based. There is more individual focus here, but our family spirit brings us together."

That culture is one of Midtjylland's four key pillars.

"From the outside, you see a very aggressive club who recruit very hard and make the best progress in Denmark," Larsen added. "But when you come inside, you find some very soft values."

They run a school for youth players to attend alongside training, and Aragona effusively praises the work-life balance achieved in Denmark.

"When I arrived at Midtjylland everyone told me: 'Your job is important, but your family is more important - if you need to do something with them, don't come to work.' The work-life balance is perfect. You train in the morning, have lunch together and then everyone goes home. If you call them it will go to voicemail!"

Still, to be successful in football a ruthless streak is required and at the City Ground on Thursday they will be managed by Mike Tullberg - appointed in late August after Thomas Thomasberg's removal.

The latter's downfall was a 17-game unbeaten run, which took in a second-placed league finish and Europa League group stage qualification.

The underlying data, apparently, told a different truth.