FC Midtjylland: How set-pieces give Nottingham Forest’s Europa League opponents the edge

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.