Set pieces — takers and routines

Six situations in the match engine resolve as set pieces: penalty goals, direct free-kick goals, corner goals, set-piece chances, free-kick chances and dangerous corners. Who takes them, and which routine you pick, changes both how often the situation produces a shot and the quality of that shot. Default takers are auto-selected by attribute, but the auto-pick doesn't know your dressing room — a veteran captain who wants the ball is often worth more than the highest-rated candidate.

The four specialist slots

Takers live in the Specialists panel of the Set Pieces tab: penalty taker, left corner taker, right corner taker and free-kick taker. The engine reads the leftcorner taker first and only falls back to the right one, so the right slot is cover rather than a genuine second option. If the nominated player isn't on the pitch — injured, suspended or on the bench — the engine selects the best available player by the same attributes rather than leaving the duty unmanned.

Who gets picked

• Penalties — weighted by the player's penalties and composure attributes.
• Direct free kicks — free kick, technique and composure.
• Corner goals — corners, heading and jump reach: the player attacking the delivery, not the deliverer.
• Dangerous corners — corners and technique: the deliverer himself.

Routines — exact effect on the engine

"Chance" multiplies how often the situation turns into a shot on goal; "quality" multiplies the expected goals of that shot. Values above 1.00 are the aggressive choices; a short corner is a possession play that deliberately halves the direct threat.

How conversion is calculated

Expected goals = base value × finishing factor × goalkeeper factor × 0.90 (angle) × 0.95 (pressure). The finishing factor starts at 0.70 and adds up to 0.20 for finishing, 0.10 for composure and 0.05 for decisions. The goalkeeper factor subtracts up to 22% for the keeper's ability. The final conversion is capped at 92%.

The base value is 0.76 for a penalty, 0.22 for a direct free kick and 0.15 for a corner goal. That means a taker with 50s across the board against an average keeper converts a penalty roughly half the time, and even a perfect taker against a weak keeper tops out near 68% — the 92% cap is never reached in practice. Composure and condition swing it more than raw finishing does.

What is not simulated

Throw-ins are not resolved as set-piece events by the engine, so the throw-in routine settings do not change the simulation today. Corner routines are read from the left setting whenever both sides are set.